Dedicated Horse People

I knew I wanted to lunge yesterday, so after Red was done eating, I gave him a few minutes to drink some, graze a little and then hooked him on a lunge line for some light lunging. No more than about 10 minutes of walking and some trotting....or so I planned. He trotted a few nice laps, very collected which I was very proud of. His head was nice and low but his neck was collecting up nicely and arched beautifully, just like I was up there using reins. He was very relaxed and supple, and went into a really nice extended trot and then a jog for the first time ever at a lunge. Normally it's a chore to get him into a jog, but he's been doing it by himself recently and going into an extended trot really quickly when I tell him to. Woot woot, I'm seriously so proud of how he's doing. I also managed to find another brother of his named Spanky's Steppin', who is an absolutely gorgeous bay. Looks just like Red, and is a phenomenal barrel horse. I'm back in contact with his old owner and going to message another person as well later this evening, so crossing my fingers for at least some more info on what they did with Red - my biggest hope is for older photos, or at least photos of his dam/sire.

Red looks scared 99% of the time but he's not, 99% of the time. ;) He has a bit of a hay belly and his butt needs a lot of muscle, but I think he looks pretty good for a 1 ride a week thing with lots of hay because of ew winter.

join up afterwards.

He decided that, less than 5 minutes into trotting, he wanted to join up, haha. I made him do a little more work but then stopped after a few more laps of trotting and let him play around. He was probably the cutest he's been in awhile, following me everywhere and literally playing with me, trotting next to me and shaking his head like "Come on playyyy woman" and then he moved right off when I told him to shoo so I could put things away.

He did worry me a little yesterday because he bit at his sides a few times after eating, but he pooped twice (Very common for Red, he poops 24/7, LOL) and it looked totally fine, and he was fine trotting around, playing with Spirit. He did lay down once but they always roll after they are cooped up in the stall for more than 15 minutes, lol. He got right up and followed me and seemed fine, cool as a cucumber. But of course, everyone who knows me knows that I'm an anxious wreck, and even though he was totally fine, I decided to go visit him when we drove by on the way to Wal-Mart.

In the cold, pouring rain.
In my boots, with holes.
In night.

But of course, I didn't mind the mud in my socks or the cold rain because Red is cute enough to suffer for. He came right over to me when I called and was chilling in the stall with Spirit, ears perked at me when he saw me. Spirit was sleeping and let me lay next to him in the stall for a minute while he was laying down. He's the most cuddly horse when he's down, lol. Red tried following me to the gate but decided that the rain wasn't okay so left me about halfway, lol.

From earlier that day.

So yes, I went into Wal-Mart with mud soaked boots, wet socks, very wet jeans from climbing the gate (totally looked like I peed my pants.) and looking/smelling like a horse.

Oh well.

So much adorable in one horse.

It's going to rain literally every day this week, so I'll probably just be feeding and grooming for the next few days. :P We do need to worm them all sometime this week.