On Friday evening Henry got his feet done by the new farrier. He’s a really good boy about his feet, so he kept getting lots of cookies and “sweethearts” from the farrier for his good behavior. In return he kept trying to lick/nibble on the farrier’s back and neck to dispense more cookies. They got along great and his feet look much better already.

 

On Saturday morning I was feeling particularly masochistic so I decided to go on the weekly 35-mile bike ride that my fiance leads. I hate the route (hills are stupid, and there’s always a ridiculous headwind) so I’ve vehemently resisted going, plus since I’ve been riding the horse a lot more I’ve had very little time to ride the bike. Hence I’m pretty darn out of shape at the moment. I thought for sure I’d get left behind pretty quickly but I managed to hang in there and stay towards the front of the group of men, all of whom ride regularly and are in great shape. Walking was tough afterward and I almost puked a few times, but pffft minor details.

 

This was one of the rare days that SO and I have off together, so after our bike ride we went to brunch and then over to the soon-to-be-new barn since they were having a show out there. We didn’t stay long because it was just so hot and we were already pretty beat, but it was nice to have the opportunity to show him around the new place. Then we went home and collapsed in front of Netflix to watch some of the new season of Orange Is The New Black before heading to his sister’s place for dinner. All in all a very nice albeit mostly non-horsey day.

Sunday I headed out to the barn around 9 to try to avoid the worst of the heat. Nice plan, but it was still hot and SUPER humid. We’re used to hot around here but the humidity is strange for us and really awful. When I got there Henry was standing in his stall covered in sweat despite his fan. I also noticed that all the sudden he’s shedding like crazy, which is kinda weird considering he was body clipped in the winter and does not look like he has any coat to spare. Guess his body is throwing all the non-essentials overboard in this heat.

This was just from 1/4 of him!

He was not surprisingly a little dull in the crossties but once I got on he perked up and worked well. I picked up some little nubby spurs on Friday just to try them out, since carrying a whip seems to just make him really tense and over-reactive. Spurs went over much better and he actually got the hell off my left leg… novel concept. Side note: WHY ARE THERE NO SPUR STRAPS THAT MATCH MY BOOTS? Two tack shops, 4 different brands of brown, and they’re all either super red or super chocolate. Boo. My OCD can’t take this, it’s making me so twitchy.

Poor Henry was super hot when we were done so we walked all over the property then I hosed him for a while before dousing him in a liniment brace. I had a little more time to kill and there was no one around, so I took him out behind the barn and let him loose to graze. It’s always so funny to see his expression when I do this… he thinks he’s escaping and being so delightfully naughty, not realizing that I let him go on purpose.

 

Henry and my dog, Stewie

 

Then I did a little Sunday Funday afternoon project. I’ll post more details about it sometime this week, but here’s a picture hint!

All in all it was a good weekend with a nice balance of pony time and personal time. Boo, Monday.