G-Good Riddance & Day 4 of 30 day challenge.

G-Good riddance.

Wow. Are the horses shedding or what??? Groomed Red today before we rode and there was hair EVERYWHERE! We swept a huge pile away. :P Red is looking so great right now, no scabs ever since we took him off the fly spray at all and the bugs really weren't bugging him at all. I'm planning to buy a very natural fly spray soon. He looks so great and I am happy to say GOOD RIDDANCE HAIR! So excited to feel a nice smooth coat. His chest looks so amazing and there was only a couple scabs but they were all healing. No bald spots. No scabs. No bleeding. Perfection. His hair is getting that gorgeous Bay coppery color to it now which REALLY excites me. I love that about Bays. :) We sprayed some de-tangler/conditioner in his tail because it was really tangled and his tail ended up looking so soft afterwards, I borrowed it from the owner of the barn who also just bought is first horse, a TWH colt who is spoiled to death. This guy spends 100$'s of dollars on this horse, Raven, and goes out there to groom him and etc more than 4 times a day every day. He's turning out to be an excellent horse owner, and Raven has the best personality!

 I apologize for the not so great picture of him, but it's the only one I could find. He is the smaller colt on the left side of the pasture with the huge snip. He also has a perfect crescent moon on his forehead underneath his forelock. :) So pretty, great TWH. I'm not a huge fan of TWH because I'm not huge on their build, but he is winning me over.

Anywho, today is day 4 of the 30 day challenge and I'm supposed to talk about the last time I rode and post pictures. This is convenient because I just got back from a ride. :) 

His eyes are closed..

I love how I'm like, "ONWARD TRUSTY STEED" and Red is just closing his eyes, probably saying "This is what I put up with." in his head....

Love this picture of him!

Today was a really, really, really pretty day. High's in the mid 60's or so, breezy, sunny with just enough clouds to make the sky even prettier, and it was just a great day to be in the saddle!!! 

We got to the barn after church, we pretty much ate lunch then ran to the barn and he had just finished eating, so we got him out of his stall and tied him at the front of the barn to brush him out and condition his extremely messy tail. How he got his tail sooo tangled is beyond me. :P :P Anywho,  after about thirty or so minutes of grooming and talking with the farm owner and Ann, a friend who also boards her horses there, she also does the feeding and etc, we tacked him up and got going. We took him up to the big 4 acre pasture and decided to trot around for awhile. So, I hopped on and we were off! 

I decided to try out a different hack and so I borrowed the other boarders hack and tried it, it prods the pressure points a little more and I thought Red would respond better and be less stubborn. He really worked great with it and seemed to like it, I enjoyed using it and he responded much better. Much less stubborn. Although, he did get stubborn when I took him past mom and the gate leading to the barn. He decided to be sassy. He put his head between his legs and tried to canter off, then when I stopped him he started side stepping and trying to go the other way. After a couple bits of that stubborness, he was fine again and we rode around for another hour or so. We rode for maybe an hour and a half give or take and he seemed to enjoy the breeze. Since he sweats really easily and everything I'd let him take a break and move him to the shade and sit for a spell, this was the first real exercise he's had in quite awhile and we trotted/cantered a lot more than usual, so I wanted to make sure I didn't get him too hot or anything. Once we were done I took him back to the front of the barn where the barn owner and Ann were sitting and I untacked him, put his halter back on and led him around the front to cool him off. After about ten minutes of that, he was less sweaty and seemed comfortable, so I took him to go back in the barn, but he saw the filly and two colts and insisted on seeing them, so I let him, then, Ann's dog, well, one of them, decided he wanted to see him, so I tied Red again and went ahead and picked his hooves, which I was going to do in the stall, but since Red was stubborn and insisted on seeing the dog, I went ahead and did it there while they said hello. I stalled him up, gave him a couple treats, which he shared with one of his girlfriends, Bay, and we hung out with everyone for awhile then left since my step-dad was watching my little brother so mom and I could go out. :) Mom didn't ride today. 

Bay-Bay.

 
 Dixie is doing worse again. She is dehydrated and refusing to drink, they had to stall her again and seperate her from the other horses so she didn't get bullied. The vet came out again today but I haven't heard anything else. Swelling is still down. She won't put weight on it. She doesn't like to walk. The vet said there would be some discharge if it was what she thought it was and there was some discharge today. Still hoping she'll be alright.