More fun!

Before Jen and I rode our little ghetto jump course, yesterday, we went to look at a few nurse mare foals. There were two fillies, and two colts. The fillies were a cremello (w/ blue eyes) TN Walker, and a palomino QH. I am in love with the QH filly. She is a freaking doll! If I were wanting any type of western prospect, I would snatch her up in a minute. Awesome conformation, puppy dog personality, great manners, etc. etc. The TN Walker filly is very very adorable, a month or so younger than the QH so not quite as big. She has great ground manners also, and just as easy going. The owner has done a fantastic job desensitizing these guys as well as making them respect you. 

The colts were a draft cross, and a TN Walker. They were at a different farm and looked quite a bit more scruffy. Neither of them caught our eye, so we didn't spend much time there.

Jen fell in love with the little cremello filly, and is making plans on bringing her home!

Since Jen is buying this little gem, she asked me to help her re-home her older Standardbred mare. I put a couple of ads up for her last night, and almost immediately had replies. There were actually a lot of good potential homes, but we set up a couple of appointments for today. One family came this morning and met with Jen. They didn't end up liking the mare very well, so they passed. I met with the second family this afternoon. It was a husband and wife, and their three (9 and younger) children. A very nice family, that seemed to click well with the mare. They are looking for a horse their kids can plod around on.. and Raven is just that. Sooo, she found a new home! I think that's the fastest I've ever re-homed a horse, less than 24 hours! =]


Then I waited around for a while and did random barn things (clean stalls, clean tack, etc etc) until Jen got there to ride. I got Rio out, groomed and tacked him, then headed for the round pen. I've been lunging him (either free lunge or on the line) before our rides, as it seems to help him relax. After lunging, I got on and took him to the indoor to warm up some more. We just did some trot laps and circles, and went over ground poles. Jen got on Stella (the BO's sassy Haflinger mare), and we went for a nice trail ride. On the trail, we pulled out some logs and branches to make ground poles and teeny tiny jumps. Both of the horses seemed to enjoy trotting through the woods and popping over the logs. On the way back, we cantered the horses on a few of the straight aways. At first I didn't care for Rio's canter, but I'm learning to love it (and him, aww! lol).

We got back to the barn and went to the outdoor to go over a couple of really low jumps (like, seriously low.. maybe 12" haha). Mr. Rio did very well, so I cooled him down and brought him inside to eat his dinner.

I'm not satisfied with his weight gain thus far, so I added beet pulp into his diet. Right now he is only getting about 2 cups am/pm, but I plan on increasing it. He has no problem scarfing it down, as I heard some horses do.

Anywaaays, I plan on riding tomorrow. Maybe I'll raise the jumps from 12" to 18" ;]

Oh yeah! I want to recommend a fantastic documentary! "Buck" is such a great film, I wanted to it last forever.. I hope you'll watch it!