The Horses Comfort Me

At this time, I find just being with the horses a great comfort. My Maisie is sweet and does her snuff-a-whuff, Noble is his splendid, reliable, sweet self, and Dawn is the alert, active alpha mare, but always interested, and with the softest muzzle. The others are also "my" horses, too - I love feeding them and leading them out and watching their interactions and playfulness, and often they come to seek me out for a scratch or a treat.

It was as good a day as any to start some spring work with Maisie - I'll wait to work Dawn until our arena is usable. We still have 4 or 5 inches of snow cover, and it was just 32F and windy, but we worked after feeding time. I groomed and saddled her, and took my bridle with us in case we got as far as riding, but put on her fuzzy nose halter and we worked on some lunging out on the field behind the barn. Every spring, Maisie and I have to do a review - we start with some lungeing, and then I ride a bit near the barn, then some ground driving on the trails, and finally riding on the trails. Every year we do this - she isn't one of those horses who you can just saddle up and ride once the weather's nice. In fact she can be a bit silly, and starts out every spring somewhat herdbound. I'm not sure how much this is due to her - she is very sweet but isn't the brightest bulb - and how much is due to my training which doesn't always stick with her very well from year to year.

She was determined that the barn was where she wanted to be, so we had various episodes of scooting, kicking out and stopping without going around the part of the circle that was facing away from the barn. She was pretty much high as a kite, and mind you, this horse gets no grain. Every time she stopped, I asked her to back up out of my space, then we stood for a moment, and then I asked her to move out again. If she tried to avoid going in a particular direction, we kept working on that until she was able to do. It took about 20 minutes, but finally we got a couple of decent laps in each direction at the walk and trot, and we stopped. Riding will have to wait for another day - one step at a time - and spring will come, someday.