It snowed on the weekend. Not even the end of October and we had a significant amount of wet snow fall on Saturday night.
Rory was a little chilly when I brought him in to eat his dinner, but by the time he'd finished he was comfortable. I sent him back out into the snow with the admonishment to go into the shelter with another horse for warmth. He's not really furry yet, but I know he does go into the shelter - alone if he decides he needs to go in, so I wasn't concerned about him. I checked on him again on Sunday morning and he was fine. He will be getting a winter blanket shortly, but it's going to have some insulation and would be a bit warm for him yet. According to "those in the know" we are supposed to get a winter with normal temperatures and more snow this year. Normal temperatures being colder than the last few warm winters we've had.
Rory was a little chilly when I brought him in to eat his dinner, but by the time he'd finished he was comfortable. I sent him back out into the snow with the admonishment to go into the shelter with another horse for warmth. He's not really furry yet, but I know he does go into the shelter - alone if he decides he needs to go in, so I wasn't concerned about him. I checked on him again on Sunday morning and he was fine. He will be getting a winter blanket shortly, but it's going to have some insulation and would be a bit warm for him yet. According to "those in the know" we are supposed to get a winter with normal temperatures and more snow this year. Normal temperatures being colder than the last few warm winters we've had.
Yesterday I took Rory with me into the arena while I was teaching a lesson. He had to follow me around, get out of my way and stand politely as I moved or stopped to follow or watch a student. It was a bit boring for him, but I did ask him to do something specific fairly regularly and rewarded a good response with a tiny chunk of carrot. If I ignored him for too long Rory started to get a little mouthy, but his only reward for that was a bop on the nose and being sent back out of my space. It was a good lesson in patience for him. After the lesson was over I spent a few minutes with him getting him to move his body in various directions, and trotting over the three poles I'd set up for my students. He was happy to move and cantered neatly over the trot poles several times before actually consenting to maintain the trot. He was very good and got more carrot chunks and lots of rubs for being good. I fed him and let him back out.
