Saddle Up, Buttercups

My trainer, Regina, told me once that if you stop a horse solid on something, it will pick it right back up after being turned out for winter. It’s an interesting concept, if for no other reason, because it shows you what you had solid. 

Riding season has started up

I know, because of buttercups. 

Here is one I found on a hike a couple of weeks ago. My husband and I had a bet to see who could find the first one. It was me. We also have an ongoing bet on who can find the first tree that seems formed by a vortex. You know, the kind that grow in a swirl of energy, as they do in vortex spots in Arizona. We want to find a local vortex. We haven’t found one yet, but we’re still looking. 

Back to Tweed. 

We spent the day at the equestrian park with friends last week. It got to about 72 degrees and sunny. As you can see, he is very fat coming out of winter. He is what you’d call an easy keeper. 

We started the day doing obstacles, and Tweed did great. That is no surprise, considering how much time we spent on obstacles last year. They were solid. 

The second half of the day was riding in the arena, and that went well, too, but at the end of our work he started getting stuck in the feet and losing his attention. I think it was just getting to be too much for his first day away from home. I got him moving again and then ended it, making a mental note to contact my trainer for a first lesson (April 2). 

We will work through whatever is there. Most likely, I didn’t do enough before getting on. He had done so well with everything else that I didn’t spend much time on ground work. Just a couple of bends and I popped right on up into the saddle. 

We went for a walk at the end of our day, and by that time he was a little sweaty and itchy. As we descended one sandy hill, his knees buckled and he got part of the way down before I smacked his rump with the rope and got him to pop right back up. He wasn’t happy about that, and he gave me the evil eye for the rest of our walk. 

Once back, I unsaddle him and let him roll in the round pen as I visited with the others, then we called it a day and returned home….where hay had just been dropped off. 

More round bales, and we just had a load of small squares delivered, too. We are doing well in the feed department. I don’t plan on putting them out on the pastures until mid-May, so we will still have need of it. I also want to find a care lease of an older equine the grandkids can ride, maybe even my husband. As of now, unless he rides Cowgirl, Epona’s mama, he doesn’t have a horse to ride with me. I’d like to have an older solid lead horse to help me with Tweed. My sister had one that would have been perfect, but she care leased him closer to her house so her granddaughter could continue to see and ride him. We’re two hours away—and that is too far. I’m hoping one of my friends has one that could use some TLC here.