Horses and Family

It’s got to be short tonight, I’ve been tied up with Skye’s recital stuff for the last couple of days, and I’m exhausted!

I did manage to go to the barn twice on Thursday. Thursday morning, Lucas and I met the farrier at the barn and Lola got a trim. She was a good girl this time. I cleaned her up and put some of the rain rot medicine on her.

Went back Thursday night without the kids. I cleaned her up and sprayed her bumps again. Poor thing! I did some work with her in the indoor ring. We had some pretty good success with moving her front end. She's backing up very nicely, and I can move her hind end now with just a look.

For some reason, I decided to try lunging her a little bit. What a stupid idea! I really don’t see why people get so obsessed with lunging. I realized very quickly that lunging was undoing a lot of the stuff I had been working so hard to teach her with the Parelli stuff. For example, I’ve been trying to make her calmer around loud noises. I’ve been working to teach her that they won’t hurt her, that I can crack a whip next to her, swing it around, etc. and it is nothing to be afraid of. Then I start lunging her and the first thing I do is try to chase her with that whip to make her go. It just doesn’t make sense. The more involved I get with the Natural horsemanship stuff, the more I like it. I really don’t know how I managed to make the Parelli stuff work with more tradition things like lunging when I started Woody under saddle. The two are so opposite.

So after about 30 seconds of trying to lunge Lola and realizing it was a really bad idea, I stopped that and we played some friendly game. Ahhhh we both relaxed. I did a little work leading her from the opposite side, brought her to the mounting block and leaned on her, patted her back, etc.

She grazed her way back to her stall, I treated her skin and called it a day.

I just got her new rain sheet I ordered yesterday. I’m heading to the barn at some point tomorrow to treat her again and drop off her new sheet. I’m so thankful that Sarah offered to do Lola’s treatment for the last couple of days.

I love my horse. I love the way I’m able to relax when I’m around her. I love getting away and being with her, but I also know my first priority is family. I was so thankful to be there for Skylar at her recital today and I wouldn’t have it any other way, but I do worry about Lola too. I don’t think I could do this if I didn’t have a boarding barn that I totally trusted. I hope Sarah doesn’t kick me out for a while.