Soundness update a some stuff.

The lack of photographic content has been in part due to the fact that I lost my camera charger a while back.  The ones here are taken with my phone so the quality is crappy but it is something.  Since Steady and I are at a stand still until he is healed up I keep thinking I need to video some of my daughters lessons with Lily the halflinger.  I am trying to decide if Lily's progress should be documented here or on a blog that is seperate.  What do you think?  Would you enjoy hearing about her training also or stick to just Steady?  I am thinking one blog would be easier as long as you all enjoy reading about her progress also.  I have a goal to get 2 training rides in on Lily each week along with my daughter riding her in a lesson 2 days a week.  I think she would start progressing much quicker then.  And now that Steady is out of commision that should be even easier.

The horses are enjoying the softer footing and the mud that the rain has brought.

Update on Steady: He is not 3 legged lame anymore which is great.  So I am confident that it is not anything serious.  He is using in normally for the most part but he is taking too many off steps for me to be comfortable to start riding him again.  I think more than anything this cement hard ground is what is making it take so long and the flies aren't helping.  He is so thin skinned and when a fly lands on him he hates it.  Just a few days after the initial injury I was out with him and he stomped so hard at a fly with THE leg that he held it up touching his belly for a good minute.  It must have hurt.  I am now thinking that he would be best covered head to toe in fly sheets.  I am not one for babying horses but with the hard ground and flies combined it may just be the right thing to do for the time being.  We will see what this rain does for the ground and I will at least be spraying him more often with fly spray.

Here is a picture of The Dude after a nine mile trail ride that my daughter and I went on last Saturday. 

He can be a pita but he sure is sessy!

It was Lily's first time out on a trail ever and I had some apprehension having my daughter be the first one to take her through the trails.  Though that pony is the most level headed horse I have met and I was 99% sure she would be perfectly fine.  I decided that I would go ahead and let my daughter do it.  And wouldn't you know she was perfect.  Like she had done it a million times.  Steady was the idiot and he was really getting on my nerves.  Every dead branch was there to kill us and required him to stand completly still or turn around and run for home.  I had to get off 2 times to lead him past a spot but other than that we worked through it so we could mostly enjoy the ride.  To give him a little credit we have trail ridden very little this season and the times we have it has been with others who led the way.  Steady unfortunately is not a fearless leader on a trail.  The cross country course he is fearless and eager which I find funny that a trail would give him so much trouble.  Horses?

We are in the process of building a deck that Steady is ridiculously afraid of, especially when we are sitting on it.  I will hopefully be starting my training rides on Lily this week so unless someone opposes I will update her progress here.