Saddle Up

And Shoe Off

I kept my promise to Chance, despite the wind. Actually the wind was gusting on and off and the temperatures were in the upper 30's.  I managed to get a short trail ride in during one of the lulls.

It was pretty calm in the woods although the footing was hard in a lot of spots and strange in a lot of spots. I think Chance broke through a layer of frozen sand in the woods because he took a couple steps where his feet seemed to go into a hole or something. Nothing drastic, but I was glad we were walking.

He did, along the road at the edge of the field, decide he wanted to trot, so I let him and then, in short order, he broke into his little rocking horse canter.  It was only for a very short stretch, but it was fun.   We had a nice rider through the woods and he was a good as gold. It's so nice to just be able to relax and enjoy a ride like that on a cold windy day.

To my surprise, the footing in the arena was not too bad, so I figured after I poo picked I could either ride or lunge Tucker. The picking took longer than I expected, and when I got back in the barn, I found I'd left a stall gate open and Tucker was stuck in the feed room again with Toby standing behind him.

We went through the usual turmoil to get him out and he nearly got stuck trying to turn around, but he managed.  Once he was out, I had to clean up again and when I found two fairly new horseshoes in the aisle, I knew we were in trouble.  In the process of raiding the barn, Tucker had lost a shoe.  It's the right front again, and I'd been keeping an eye on it because I thought it had that "ready to fall off" look to it. It wasn't loose but it just didn't seem to be sitting quite right on his toe.  Actually, if my calendar is right, Tucker is quite due for shoeing.

So that now meant that I had to fix up Tucker's stall so he could stay in.  I basically stripped it and added two bags of shavings to give his hoofies a good cushion and filled his water bucket.  I toyed with hooking up the heated bucket but since I am home here I can go out several times a day to see that his water does not freeze, adding heated water as needed.  

With Christmas on the immediate horizon, I have no idea when Scott will be able to come.  And there is the big worry of a potential snowstorm Sunday into Monday.  Of course the storm is not a sure thing, but it would not bode well for Scott to get in here if it does arrive.

In the meantime, I need to go to the feed store to get some more barley for Toby and stock up on some shavings for the stalls.

Never quite seem to find a way to actually get all the chores done. They just keep coming back.