It’s Spring! How is my horse feeling?
Springtime is here! I hope that your winter was as active as mine was. One of the beautiful things about living in Colorado is that you can be on the slopes in the morning and comfortably playing with or riding your horse in the afternoon. Having said that I did not spend as much time with my horse as I would have liked and so, I, like many of you, feel that April is the month where I recommit myself to my horse and my horsemanship.
LET’S USE THIS MONTH TO WORK ON DEFINING OUR GOALS AND DESIRES FOR OUR RELATIONSHIP WITH OUR HORSES AND HOW TO ACHIEVE THEM.
Let’s start with the basics:
What is the status of my relationship with my horse?
For Catty and me, we are “best friends for life”!
We know each other well, we can depend on each other and we have a ton of fun together!
You know how with some relationships in our lives, we can pick up right where we left off, even if we haven’t seen each other in a while!? That’s us, that’s Catty & me.
Have I been there for my horse all winter?
For a while, I was being really diligent about riding Catty on a regular basis. I needed her to be in shape for skijoring. However, then I hurt myself in a skiing accident… I spent the next week on the couch just spending quality time with Catty & Kitty to expedite my recovery since I had a big trip to and through Montana coming up.
Since then, we have had a few weeks with mild temperatures and we have been able to ride out, ride through the neighborhood and get back to working the cutting simulator in our indoor arena.
What have I done to show my horse love?
I make sure their needs are taken care of: safety, comfort, play & food. They get to live outside in a herd, have shelter from the weather, we play at Liberty and they get good quality hay & water!
How is my horse responding to me these days when I try to spend more quality time with him?
Little Miss Kitty, my miniature horse is a lot more trusting and less skittish when I spend more quality time with her. I make sure to always start our time together with quality time, just hanging out and being with each other, sometimes she will want to be scratched too. Then, I pepper in those moments between “work” or “play” sessions and wrap up our time together with lots of loving!
How do YOU express love for your horse? By hugging your horse? Feeding your horse treats? Stroking your horse on the neck? By putting extra bedding in your horse’s stall?
PLEASE COMMENT BELOW AND LET US KNOW!
Here is a picture of me loving on my horses; share yours & your love in the comments!
Have a Happy Horse Day!
Elli
Little Miss Kitty And I (1)
My Loves (1)
Milly and I have been together for 22 years come July so I would say we are best friends for life! Her silent nickers at me anytime she sees me tell me I’m not just being delusional😄
This last winter was tough for us, because she had colic surgery at the beginning of October. Which requires her to be quite cooped up for the next 60 days. Hopefully we built even more of a relationship, as I hand walked her twice a day. We are fortunate to have our horses live on our property, so feeding twice a day, Plus soaked grain with supplements and good water is an every day thing. To show love, one of the things I do when I see her is call her name excitedly! She’s also learned that if she comes up to the fence while I’m playing with the dog and her ball, she’ll get a couple cookies from me 😉 that has turned into a daily ritual.
This blasted wind has really put a crimp on attempting to spend more quality time with Milly. I have gone out several times and given her a thorough brushing which she certainly enjoys. I’m really hoping to get back to doing some things online, and even playing with the flag, because I think we have an opportunity to carry the flag at our local arena at the beginning of June! Millie has played with flags in the past, so I anticipate it going well! But she’s pretty out of condition after being cooped up, so we need to build some muscle mass back.
I expressed my love for her, by calling out her name excitedly, feeding her a little handfuls of grass that are growing in the yard that she cannot access, the horse cookies, and lots of scratches.
The idea of A book club sounds pretty interesting. Please let me know when you set that up. I have that book already, and maybe it’ll push me to finally read it!
Awe, Milly! I am so glad she pulled through this scary time! I can already picture you two with the flag – what a proud moment on so many levels!
I am grateful for my two horses, Magi who is 23 & Halo who is 13! About three weeks ago, we had a wild fire in our community. While we could not actually see what was burning or how close the fire was, we had an abundance of smoke collecting on our property. The horses were obviously anxious. We hooked up the trailer thinking we would move them, but then I realized neither one of them was going to get in a “box”. So, I got out their halters, and went into the pasture. They came running and unbelievably calmed down. I haltered them and we walked quickly to our north gate and down the road for about a quarter of a mile. For a couple of hours they grazed quietly in a vacant lot while we waited for the first responders to give an “all clear.” And then, we walked quietly back home. A bit later I noticed they were standing underneath their favorite tree, where they stood for three hours. Exhausted from the adrenalin, I thought maybe I should take note about my two took the time to recover from such stress! I am grateful that they clearly trusted me to get them to a better place!