Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Back in the Saddle and Feeding the Fish

I have not ridden in three weeks due to a lack of time and some physical restrictions. I had to have a very minor surgery a couple of weeks ago and riding was on the 'no' list for a couple of weeks although after a couple of days I could do all of my usual farm work. The week before that I was busy finishing up the last couple of days of dental appointments and just generally busy. I was very happy to get back in the saddle today. It was another gorgeous day today and perfect for enjoying the horses. I hopped on Sky for a few minutes and of course had very low expectations after three weeks off. I was only on her for 15 minutes total.


Too my great surprise I had one of my best rides yet on her. She remembered everything we had been working on as far as contact, pushing from behind, lifting her back, being on the bit, it was like we had not missed a day. I mostly walked with a few minutes of trotting and two 20 meter canter circles. I was expecting we would regress in our progress so I was very pleasantly surprised. She had lots of patting and heard "good girl!" over and over. Hopefully tomorrow I will have time to ride both Sky and Bonnie. We all know Bonnie does best with consistent work, but maybe Sky has set the tone and Bonnie will give me a pleasant surprise as well.

Sky lifted her head from grazing for a moment when I took her picture

Things have been pleasantly routine around the farm the last few days. In an interesting herd dynamic note MyLight has become the definite boss mare in her group. The mares and Cuffie are always an interesting and entertaining group, you will recall the pony wars they had a couple of months ago! Anyway, in a gradual transition over a few weeks MyLight emerged as the alpha mare and has remained solidly in that position for a few weeks now. It was not a dramatic change but rather a gradual shift. The only real difference is that she gets fed first, and on the rare occasion that she pins her ears at one of the others they get out her way pronto. I definitely wasn't expecting this as MyLight has typically been towards the bottom of the order in the past according to her mom.

The weather has been pretty spectacular the last few days. It has been great to have normal October weather again, 70's and sunny. I spent a pleasant 20 minutes or so at the pond yesterday afternoon feeding the fish. My dad keeps the pond stocked and feeds the fish regularly so they are trained to come up to the surface to get the food. When you start throwing the food in all of a sudden it looks like a tidal wave heading for you as the fish charge their way to the food. The fish actually know the sound of his Gator and head over to the spillway when they hear him coming!

Not much else to report here so it is time to sign off.

These pictures of the fish with their mouths open makes me hear the music from Jaws playing in the background.

Cuffie, Missy and Lily grazing quietly

I love this picture of Apollo; he is a great horse with a kind personality and I think it comes through in this picture

Levendi's totally adorable face

MyLight and Buffy

Teddy, Lucky and Mr. O'Reilly

Trillion and Winston are buddies
This isn't the picture I was going for; B-Rad was resting his head on Ogie's back but he moved just as I took the picture

Faune and Sebastian can often be seen right next to each other

Enjoying retirement

5 comments:

lytha said...

hey, we have that same movie scene when we feed our fish, it makes me feel so appreciated: ) specially how the fish hide when they hear unfamiliar footsteps, but come right up to us.

i just showed my man your post cuz not only is he in charge of our fish, he has been hearing me reference the movie jaws, and always asks, "what's jaws?"

fish are hard work, because this week we cleaned and drained one of the ponds. i cleaned out a whole 'nother pond by myself, raking out the water plants and heaping them on land.

after draining with a pump, my man tried to remove as much mud/sludge as possible, with a shovel and bucket method. that was so hard, and in my mind, a futile task, but we'll see.

it would help if we had the guts to kill our own fish, but we are total amateurs and it really bothers us to kill them. also we gross out while cleaning them.

so for now we have 30 salmon-sized rainbow trout living in the equivalent of a fishy retirement farm. hehehe

~lytha

Anonymous said...

Glad you started back again with a good ride - Sky looks very sweet, and beautiful. Hope you're all recovered from whatever occasioned the surgery.

Vivian, Apollo's Mom said...

Glad to hear that you are back in the saddle. Thanks for the wonderful pic of Apollo- it really does show off his sweet kind nature. I miss him so much!

LuLo Designs/Blue Eyed Tango said...

Melissa,
Sorry to hear you had to have a surgery to slow your riding down...although it sounds as if you have not lost anything. I love Apollo's refined muzzle in your photo and didn't I tell you that MyLight was quiet unique and special? LOL? There's something about that one!

ZionFarm said...

Wow! That is quite a pond of fish you have there!

Your new mare is so beautiful. Glad you are having good weather and glad it has decided to quit raining! We had quite a bit come through as well, plus a horrid cold snap over the last weekend. Im glad to have the 70's back. :)