Brisk Day

Quite a Change in The Weather
The temperature dropped considerably overnight.  The result was a perfectly lovely Saturday.

However, my morning was consumed by a visit to the chiropractor and physical therapy.  Once that was done, I headed for the feed store to pick up the low starch feed I'd ordered for Tuck and Chance.  To my complete frustration, they had none in stock.  This, after I had called on Tuesday to be sure there would be some there.  They'd had two bags then and the manager promised me he would put in an order so I could pick up more bags Saturday.  The girls in the store said he does that kind of thing all the time--promises a customer he'll place an order and then forget to write it down. 

Pain.  I ended up stopping at the other feed store to pick up one bag of their not quite as low starch feed.  I opted out of the really low starch variety because it was some $30 for a 50 lb bag!  I don't know what makes the low starch feed so much more expensive, but that was just too much to pay.  I'll be looking into alternative brands.

I took another ride to the book store to see what kind of videos and CD's they might have on Wagner's Ring operas since I am teaching a little opera at school.  I didn't quite find what I wanted, but I did get something that will work.  When I retired, I'm pretty sure I gave all the bulk of my materials to my Wagner fan friend--once again thinking I'd have no use for it.  So I had to do a bit of a restock. 

Home again, I headed out to the barn.  I decided to give Tucker a break after the boot rub from Friday and lunged Chance instead.  I put him through the same basic routine I'd used with Tuck, including the two little jumps.  I have to laugh a bit about Chance's laid back approach to the whole thing.  Until I put the jump up high enough to make him work at it, he just kind of half trotted over the combination.  The trouble was that it was a canter stride combination, so every time he did that, he had to really struggled to time the second little fence.  He looked like an awkward puppy!! 

Once the second jump was up and he realized he needed to make a little effort, he picked up the pace and impulsion on his own and finally finished up looking like a fairly athletic, if lazy jumper.  Not quite up to his dad's standards--from the pictures I've seen of him, but competent. *lol*

Toby had come in from the pasture and seemed to be looking for some attention, so I caught him and, with a promise that I'd not work him too hard, I took him out for a short lunge.  He does like to jump, so I gave him a short warm up at the trot and canter and then set him at the little combination.  His enthusiasm outscored Chance by at least a factor of ten.  I had to move the one stride combo about two feet farther apart so he could make the striding without having to collect himself too much.  If I were seriously training  him, I'd have kept the shorter distance and insisted he adjust his approach, but this was just a fun session, so I didn't make any demands. 

At the end, I raised the second jump for him too and he flew over it with his usual Toby jumping exuberance.  He really is an amazing athlete to watch.  I'm glad I didn't choose a jumping career for him as he probably would be having some soundness problems now at age 20, but it's always been fun to play with him like this.  He seems to enjoy the challenge and I certainly have fun. 

As I said at the opening, it was a lovely Saturday.