Wow

I hadn't ridden my mare in 12 days.... Yah, I was prepared for a mess. I took her into the round pen to see what she would do. She lunged like a normal horse, no tail flagging spiraling out of control, dragon snorting monster that I expected. So I went and put on her bridle and figured I'd cool her out by walking and doing some bending before they decided to feed her way out in her pasture. I hopped on and after being mildly annoyed with bit contact she settled right in. I even did a few really nice trot transitions just to get her thinking forward. I was so pleasantly surprised. I think my little mare might be starting to grow up!

I was worried that after 12 days of not seeing her I would go out and she would be a skeleton horse because I hadn't been out to feed her her extras. Nope. She's just as fat as she was at the beginning of winter, so I'm hoping that she stays a good weight if I feed her when I ride her. I weighed her with the weight tape and she read 1136. I think that's a really decent weight for her. Her feet are getting a little chipped, and that front left(?) crack never fully healed. I'm going to set up a shoeing appointment hopefully. I don't know whether I should pull shoes for winter or not? I just finally got her to keep her shoes... but I would rather let her feet do some natural growth and not spend the extra $30 or whatever.

Her clip is almost non-existent so I'll probably be doing that some time over winter break, depending on how cold it gets. I'm still planning on getting her a blanket liner for the colder days when she is clipped. My pampered little mare :)

I got to ride two horses at the barn back home when I was there for thanksgiving, a horse named Jackson, and a pony named Wall-e so CUTE!!