Blinding Light

Today I had help with chores around the place from my working student and the sister missionaries from church.  They dutifully mucked stalls, paddocks, cleaned water tanks, washed the truck and trailer, and moved boxes into the attached garage.  I did some of the things I love best:  riding my horses and working with them on saddle fitting.  I rode Taz the palomino quarter horse, whose color is changing dramatically every day.  He was nearly white in his winter coat, but is shedding out to a golden yellow palomino color.  I worked on some bending and conditioning with him in the arena.

Next I took out Highboy, who was just beside himself with excitement from having been turned out in the pasture with his buddies for a few hours earlier in the morning.  He absolutely could not stand still and was launching himself around the hitchrail in an attempt to go back to playing with his friends.  I decided to put him on the lunge line to get his brain engaged before he stomped on me in over-exuberance.  In the arena he was a little frisky, but when he realized his job was to focus and then carefully arrange his feet so that he could jump the little cross-rail and ground poles while he was on the lunge line in a circle around me, he suddenly shifted gears and became very interested in his footwork.  I really like the brain on this baby horse.  Once he had regained his composure I tacked him up and we rode a little in preparation for tomorrow's saddle club show.  We did some walking, trotting, cantering, practicing our turns and circles, and even trotted over the small jumps set up in the arena.  Each time I ride Highboy he feels different, like he is continuing to grow and get stronger and more coordinated.  I imagine it's challenging for him to assemble all his suddenly growing body parts into something that can carry a human around without losing his balance.  He does love to come out and play, though.  Even when it's not his turn to work he watches me very very carefully when I work with the other horses.

After I was done with Highboy I rode Shambhu with a jumping saddle I have here on trial for him and the impression pad to see how it fits him when he's moving.  He rode really well, I rode him at the canter both directions on both leads for the first time since his injury last fall.  The way we found out he was painful at that time was because he suddenly and uncharacteristically bucked when cantering to the left and his owner fell off.  That's partly why he's been here getting re-started under saddle so that his owner doesn't have to deal with any difficult behavior as he learns that his back doesn't hurt anymore.  He cantered to the right on the right lead no problem (historically his better direction anyway).  Then I gave him a minute to walk and catch his breath, and I asked him to canter to the left on the left lead.  He gave one small kick out with his right hind foot as he tried to pick up that lead, but then cantered quite nicely that direction as well, much more swinging and rhythmic than he was even before the injury.  I told him he could come back down to the trot and he did, but only long enough to re-balance himself and then he eagerly picked up the left lead again to show how well he could do it.  I love an eager horse.

After Shambhu and I were done I gave him a bath, using my favorite shampoo, conditioner, and hair polish to make him sparkle.  Since a wet horse will almost always roll in the dirt if turned loose after a bath, I hand grazed him in the yard as he dried.  He is so brilliantly white that we were nearly blinded.  His mane and tail are white and grey now (no yellow!) and completely tangle-free.  It's a lot of work to make a white horse look white, but when I'm successful it sure is special.  He also smells nice.