About three weeks ago Rory very briefly cast himself against a hay feeder in the paddock. I saw hooves flailing when I was putting the brat back out and realized they belonged to Rory when he stood up. He was fine, with just a bang on the outside of one foreleg just above the fetlock. It's been slightly swollen since, but has been softening and getting smaller in the last week. Anyway the upshot is I haven't done any arena work with him since. He's come in for cross tie and standing while being groomed practice several times. He's been good and even stood very well while a horse was getting shod about fifteen feet in front of him. Rory was very well behaved for his latest hoof trimming too.
The weather has been warming up here to unseasonably high temperatures, and with the snow gone I have been itching to get at Rory's wild mane and shorten it for the summer. I held off through March because if it got colder and/or rained or snowed he could stand to have the extra protection. Finally this last week I had enough and started trimming. It takes me 4-5 sessions to do a mane usually because I simply don't have the patience to do it properly throughout and usually cheat the last bit. Rory's took three. The second was very short as I was just filling in time before a lesson and he didn't really want to stand still so there was a lot of putting him back. The final session was today while we waited for our turn with the vet (spring vacs) and the wait was long enough that Rory now has a much shorter mane. It's not braiding short, but it looks tidier than the full neck coverage he had. He wiggled a bit, but was pretty good. His mane now very neatly lies on the left side of his neck just like my QH's did. He seems to have more red in his chestnut coat this year, but his mane and tail still tend towards blond.
Rory's been full of beans lately and I've gotten a few pictures of him horsing around - most often with the rising three year old filly (TOY's half sister). Everyone who sees him comments on how big he's grown. He's still a little ribby as he goes through his growth spurts, and his joint are still big, though more in balance with his legs now. I was watching him at the water after letting him back out the other day and he looks very nicely proportioned just now, though still a bit winter scruffy.
The weather has been warming up here to unseasonably high temperatures, and with the snow gone I have been itching to get at Rory's wild mane and shorten it for the summer. I held off through March because if it got colder and/or rained or snowed he could stand to have the extra protection. Finally this last week I had enough and started trimming. It takes me 4-5 sessions to do a mane usually because I simply don't have the patience to do it properly throughout and usually cheat the last bit. Rory's took three. The second was very short as I was just filling in time before a lesson and he didn't really want to stand still so there was a lot of putting him back. The final session was today while we waited for our turn with the vet (spring vacs) and the wait was long enough that Rory now has a much shorter mane. It's not braiding short, but it looks tidier than the full neck coverage he had. He wiggled a bit, but was pretty good. His mane now very neatly lies on the left side of his neck just like my QH's did. He seems to have more red in his chestnut coat this year, but his mane and tail still tend towards blond.
Rory's been full of beans lately and I've gotten a few pictures of him horsing around - most often with the rising three year old filly (TOY's half sister). Everyone who sees him comments on how big he's grown. He's still a little ribby as he goes through his growth spurts, and his joint are still big, though more in balance with his legs now. I was watching him at the water after letting him back out the other day and he looks very nicely proportioned just now, though still a bit winter scruffy.
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