Almost A Full Load

I feel like I should have horses farther along considering it's almost summer, but things are finally coming together and I almost have a full load of horses to haul. Moon seems to be responding to the Adequan well. His colonic and respiratory systems are back up to par and I have re-started his stifle rehab conditioning program...

I was riding the other day, feeling a bit sorry for myself that I always seem to be restarting with him and then it hit me...The problem is that I work so hard to get him strong and then I revert back to a more traditional training program with him. That simply doesn't work with a horse with habitually weak stifles. I shouldn't view his specific conditioning program as a 'rehab', but rather as a complete change in lifestyle. He's doing well though and I think he will be ready to run again in a couple of weeks. Perfect timing, as there is a saddle series that I would like to run him at. Other than the occasional money added race, Moon's primary roll this summer will be as a rodeo horse.

I did go to a barrel racing the other day and took Frosty...

I wanted to exhibition him a couple of times before deciding whether to run him in the competition or not, but he did such an excellent job on his 2nd exhibition, that I waved off my last exhibition and called it a day for him. I know that sounds silly, but he is so green yet, when he does a really good job...that is the last thing I want in his brain for the day. There is always another barrel race. We have all summer. I just have to say though...Frosty makes me all tingly. When he gets it right, he is so effortless to ride. He is going to be something special!

I did run Spooks in the competition...

For his first run of the year, he did a really nice job. Slow. Slower than I anticipated he would be. But his condition level is low yet and I tried running him with the rope-nosed hackamore that I usually ride him with at home. He really dropped onto his front-end in the turns with that headgear on and lost a lot of time. Spooks is a rear-wheel drive horse without a lot of slide, if he drops on his front-end, it takes him a lot of time to lift that front-end back up and get rebalanced so he can push off of his inside hind leg. He didn't step one foot out of his turns though and felt very confident about what he was doing. So that makes me feel like it's a good start to the season. It's back to riding and running him with the smooth snaffle. He may have an exceptionally light mouth, but he obviously needs a little something to balance on so he doesn't drop on his front-end in the turns.

Now it's time to get rolling on a couple more. No sense in having empty slots in the trailer. ;-)