Neighborhood Ride and Trim

We rode Gletta and Morgunn this morning down to the North irrigation ditch. It was interesting to watch them as we rode down the street. They noticed all the differences caused by the heavy rain we had over the weekend - trash, washouts, etc. The soil was still pretty wet so we had to be careful where we went and we could only tolt a couple of short times.

Our farrier came today for their regular trim and he said their hooves looked great. Both have always been barefoot.

Sunday Day Off

Sunday is always a day off for our horses. We have church in the morning and we try to observe the Sabbath for us and for Gletta and Morgunn. Fortunately, we did not have the severe rain we had yesterday. It's actually a pretty evening and the horses are enjoying the quiet, night air.

Rain Again

It's hard to believe that anyone in dry New Mexico can complain about too much rain, but that's the case today. It rained again last night - good for the dryness - but we decided that it was too messy to ride. Our soil is sandy, but it's a clay sand. When it gets wet it clumps up and the footing is not the best. I don't want to take the chance of injuring a tendon by riding in the clumpy soil.

I used the time to clean out the stalls which needed cleaning. So, the time was fruitful. Hopefully we will be able to ride Monday morning.

Working the Kinks Out

We finally got to ride this morning after preparing for, going to and coming down from our family reunion. On top of that, we have had rain this week which is a good thing for many reason, but not for riding.

We took Gletta and Morgunn out around the neighborhood. It enabled us to start getting back in sync with them and they with us. I was surprised at how soft the ground is after all the rains. We also were surprised at how some of our trails had been washed out by the rains.

We hope to ride tomorrow - perhaps to the Bosque.

No Ride Today - But Finally Some Rain

We had hoped to ride down to the North ditch this morning, but it rained over night and stopped about 6:15 AM. The clay sand we have in this area can be slick when it's wet so we decided it would be safer not to ride. We hope to ride tomorrow morning come heck or high water. Because of our family reunion in Pagosa Springs and the rain since we've been home it's been almost three weeks since we've been able to ride.

Survived the 4th - But Not the AC

I checked on Gletta and Morgunn last night about 10 PM to make sure they were OK about the fireworks display just west of us at the high school. They were out in the back corner of their lot, but they seemed to be doing alright.

We had a lot of big thunder boomers during the night, a couple that seemed to be right on top of our house.

This morning, they were as spooky as I have ever seen them. Usually one or both are in their stalls waiting for their hay when I come out. This time they were both out and alert - watching across the street. Suddenly, Morgunn spooked and ran off with Gletta hot on his trail. They ran to the back of the lot. I thought maybe it was the thunderstorm from last night, but I suddenly heard an awful racket coming from across the street. It turned out to be our neighbor's air conditioning. Every time it tried to run it made this awful grinding sound - probably a bad bearing.

I couldn't get either horse to come into their stall so I put their hay in there to see what they would do. They both came into the far stall, grab a bite of hay and return outside. This went on for awhile. Eventually, they seemed to settle a little, but they were still very alert.

We were going to ride today, but we decided to let them have a quiet day to settle down. We'll try again tomorrow.

Happy 4th of July

Today was an off day for us and for Gletta and Morgunn since it was the 4th of July holiday. We used the day to rest and they used the day to do what the do - eat, sleep, poop. They like to spend the afternoon asleep. Gletta likes to sleep in the sun and Morgunn likes to sleep in the shade under the shade cover. It's comforting to see them asleep on their sides since that indicates they feel very safe in their home.

New Addition to Our Ground Work

While we were in Pagosa Springs, I was able to watch some horse trainers on satellite that we can't see on cable. I especially liked Clinton Anderson. He was training a young horse in the round pen, but what I noticed was all the 'junk' in the pen with the horse - a tarp, plastic bags, balls, logs, etc. He said that he liked to train his horses this way to help de-sensitize them to distractions such as these.

Today, Betty and I did ground work with Morgunn and Gletta. We got four plastic bags for each of them and had them on the ground. It bothered them at first, but they began to disregard them as we took them through their ground work paces. We're going to do this each time we do ground work with them.

Noah and the Flies

I guess Noah had to take some flies with him on the ark. With that many animals there were certainly some flies who piggybacked on board. It would have been nice if they had all died in the flood. Our horses would certainly be happier. We're doing all we can - fly predators, fly masks, fly spray, fly traps, fly strips, and careful manure management - so our fly problem, I think, is less than others in our area. But, they're still there. I guess you can't escape them - just minimize them as best you can. Noah, why didn't you have some fly spray with you so you could kill all the flies on the ark?

One Problem with Leaving

One problem with leaving for any time is having someone else watch our horses. We have a very knowledgeable friend take care of Gletta and Morgunn. The only problem is she's so good that she has so many other clients that she can't spend the time like we do - especially spreading the manure. Living in a dry climate, the best thing we can do is spread the manure so it can dry in our low humidity with lots of sunshine. This helps eliminate a lot of the fly problems. However, our person just doesn't have the time to spread as completely as I do. So, I spend several days after we return breaking up the manure she wasn't able to get done. Still, I wouldn't have anyone else watch after our horses since she cares so much about them herself.