Riding
Awareness of the outside world. A day of running errands, e.g. hay, cat food, bank, and so on. I assume the world was able to spin without me.
~~~
You may have noticed a pattern.
Milton goes to Stepping Stone Farm to practice with other horses in a group lesson. [Hooves, Lesson]
Rodney goes to Falcon Hill Farm to practice over tiny jumps. [Ears, Ring]
Now that Spring is springing, clinic choices and schooling options are popping up.
We have decided to decline most of the new adventures. We will stay with the current set up for now.
Both horses are in routines that kinda, sorta work for them.
Neither horse handles novelty well.
Neither horse needs variety in their schedule at the moment.
We will use routine to our advantage. Same bat time; same bat channel. They will be reassured by knowing where they are and what they will be doing.
So, for the time being,
Milton goes to SSF
Rodney goes to …
HA!
Milton went on his trip last weekend, above.
Rodney did NOT go on his trip last weekend.
Not sooner had I drafted this than Rodney threw a monkey wrench into our plans. (The draft even contained the words, ‘as soon as I say this something will go sideways’. Again, I say HA!)
The Crystal Cupcake has tweaked his neck.
He’s fine. Okay at liberty. Okay to hand walk. Okay to the to left on the lunge line. He only shows discomfort lunging to the right and under saddle. That’s how I found out about it. He was fine until I got on. Then, he couldn’t reach around to get his mounting cookie. Got off. Flexed just fine. Got back on. Carried himself weird through the neck. Sigh.
(Yes, I’ve been swept up by the cookie train, but that’s another post.)
Another 0.5 lameness. Well, technically it’s level 2. Symptoms are consistent under certain conditions. However, it is so mild, I’m calling it a 0.5. [Tires]
Does it seem as if Rodney has an ever-evolving series of minor mystery ailments? Yeah, it does to me too.
Why? A few reasons.
Baseline. In blog and in life, one tends to highlight the drama.
One. Rodney is a horse. It’s always something.
Two. Rodney is a big horse. Or, more accurately, he is a tall horse. He is a 17+ hand horse on 16-hand feet. Structural stress. Cold-blooded draft horses are built to be that big. Hot-blooded Thoroughbreds are not. I bought him in spite of his height, not because of it.
Three. Rodney is a crooked horse. Foalhood injury has left an small atrophied section behind his right shoulder. This causes compensating imbalances elsewhere. More structural stress. [Fix]
or, possibly
Four. The universe hates me. (While I know this not to be the case, I have moments.)
We will resume the plan as soon as Rodney gets on board.
Onwards!
Katherine
Virtual Brush Box 
That’s a lot of horse.
I’d need a ladder to get on that one.
Big is not always better.
I use a mounting block. Because it’s better for their backs. That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it.