New Horses

My barn owner got a new load of horses today, so although I did get a little bit of work done with Walker, I was mostly distracted by the cute new arrivals.  My barn owner finally decided to bring in a couple of ranch horses instead of the show horses she normally brings in.  They're quarter horses, but they're not the big quarter horses she usually buys.  Oftentimes, those horses turn out to be too much for the little kids to handle, and she needs more beginner-friendly horses.  These are the smaller type of quarter horse.  They've been roped off of, ridden by lots of different people, and are supposedly bombproof.  I guess two of them also came from a First Nations community somewhere in the States.  She has a bay, a black, and a fleabitten grey.  When she put the little bay pony in his stall, he wasn't in there for more than two seconds before he ripped his bucket of its hook and threw it across the stall.  My barn owner exclaimed, "Oh no!  Walker Junior!"

pony love

Walker was out again today, but I don't think he'll get out for the rest of the week.  The paddocks already look a little icey, and we're expecting a lot of rain tomorrow and the next day.  When the temperature goes below freezing again, the paddocks will be skating rinks.

As you can see from the picture to my right, Walker was spreading his love around the field today again.  It's nice to know that he doesn't discriminate because today he was cozying up to another gelding.  All the mares were in another paddock!  It never ceases to amaze me that he is able to get right in other horses' faces (or other parts of their bodies!) and they never kick him or squeal or make a fuss.  I don't know how he does it!

That being said, he was protective of me for the first time today.  When I was leading Walker out of the paddock, another more ill-mannered and pushy gelding tried to ram through the gate.  I had my hand between the gate and the post, so it was potentially a broken hand, but before I had a chance to act, Walker whirled around and sent the other horse flying.  I was such a proud mama.

Polo pony - blue is definitely his colour

Other than that, our ride was pretty bland.  I am happy with our accomplishments though.  We worked on some halt to canter transitions, and we also did some stirrupless work since I fell off the stirrupless wagon a couple weeks ago when I got busy.  Unfortunately, I didn't get to do too much of the latter because the new horses arrived shortly after I started that, and my barn owner needed me to move my car for the plow to come in.  Once I got back into the arena, Walker had a mini spook because the plow (which was immediately on the other side of the wall to the arena) was crashing around and scraping along the ice.  Walker was fine, but I decided to just put my stirrups back down and cool him off.  After all, I had kept him 40 minutes from his supper as it was, and I was anxious to see the new horses.

The other thing that I accomplished today was wrapping Walker's legs in polos.  Thanks to everyone who responded to my last post about boots.  When I wrote the post, I pretty much had one pair of open front boots picked out, and I was hoping that a sensible voice would convince me that I probably didn't need them.  Now I have two or three different kinds of boots picked out!  Oh joy!  If only I had the money...

I probably could have done a better job wrapping his legs.  I can see where it is a little uneven/loose, but I'm still practicing.  I only wrapped his front legs today because I'm pretty sure he's never worn polos before so I wanted to make sure he wouldn't trip all over himself while we were riding.  Ironically, he tripped in the deep sand and his whole hind end slipped out from underneath him (this is not the first time...), so he probably could have benefited from a little a back leg protection!  Next time maybe.

Chester in his new kitty tent - he had to be encouraged to go in here,
or rather discouraged so he thought it was his idea