Sunday, June 14, 2009

Busy Sunday

And Some Horsework

I sang two solos in church this morning. Not bad, if I say so myself. They were both spirituals: "I Know the Lord's Laid His Hands on Me" and "Go Down In De Lonesome Valley." The second one is quite beautiful, kind of "haunting." I was quite pleased with how it went. After church I went out to lunch with my choir friends.

Came home, took a little time off, then headed out to do the weed whacking. Not too sure how long I was out there, but I did the front bank again, all around the house, along the fence by my Aunt's house, and then out by the paddock and rose garden. The poor roses were weeded in, and I will definitely have a project to try to clean out around them more than just cutting the weeds down. By the time I was done, it was time to feed the Boys, so I did and came back inside to crash for another while.

Towards later evening, I went back out and lunged everyone. Curiously enough, when I tried to catch Chance and Tucker the two of them played hard to get, but Toby came over to me and let me put the halter on him without a second thought.

I gave him a fairly short lunging session, mindful of the fact that he really hasn't been doing much work. All three Boys play and romp quite a bit, so there are never entirely unfit, but that's a heck of a lot different than being fit enough for a real work session.

I lunged Tucker next, and he too was a good boy. I am concentrating on insisting that he move forward every time he is under my control, so that was the goal tonight. It worked pretty well.

I worked Chance last. As I'd left the gate to the arena open, Tucker and Toby came in to supervise and at one point, Tucker started cantering around on Chance's circle, chasing him. This was a potentially dangerous situation-- a loose horse and an lunging horse, and I had obviously miscalculated by leaving the gate. Fortunately Tuck stayed on the outside and I had enough control over Chance to avoid disaster. I will be more diligent the next time.

Although, I must admit that at the moment, the gate has limited effect as a whole section of fence is down separating the arena from the paddock. That will be one of my first projects once school is out. The limited time after school each day and the precious time of weekends gets used up with other priorities, I fear.

I'm sure those of you who have your own places know all too well how many little chores there always are to take up the hours of the day.

5 comments:

  1. Ooh, that mischievous little Tucker! I can only imagine what he was thinking. Those guys know how to have fun.

    I can't imagine how you find the time and energy to take care of your farm while you are working.

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  2. Anonymous6:50 AM

    You sure do work hard!

    I know what you mean about all the stuff to do around the barn - it seems to never end!

    Glad the solos at church went well for you!

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  3. I'm sure you must have a lovely voice if you're requested to do solos.
    The boys just want to have fun it seems. Glad it all worked out with the lunging.
    I can sympathize with you on not having enough time for the horses. There is always too much to do around the farm, the more you work the more projects crop up. I guess we'll never get bored.

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  4. What I always shake my head at, especially so on the weekends, is the 'prepared list' I have in my head, compared to the 'ad hoc list' that suddenly crops up . . . often neither the twain shall meet . . .

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  5. the best laid plans, and all that!

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