Workin' Hard on President's Day

Muddy ponies

We spent today fixing fences and gates, most of them the demise of my cribber, Harley. John drove the truck down with spare boards and hay bales. Once we spread out the hay, the gang munched for awhile, then decided to come see what we were up to and sniff our pockets for carrots.

It was warm enough to remove blankets and let them air out in the sun. Of course, once they were undressed, Harley and Rolex had a nice roll in the mud. While we were down fixing a gate, Harley cribbed (post carrot fix), and Rolex had to investigate the stuff hanging on the fence. Ruffy, well she just wanted to stick with her sorority sister. And the two geezers, Vance and Gator, they started in eating all the hay laying about for the taking! Smart boys.

We got in a short ride up into Orris Falls, which is still pretty icy in places, and then up past Big Bump and out behind the Savages house. Both Rolex and Harley were in lolligag mode. No nervous, spooky OTTB's today. We had to really push them down the trail, until Rolex realized we'd turned for home and picked up the pace. We only rode for thirty minutes when we reached the barn again, so then we practiced "trail class skills"--opening the gate from horseback, and then closing it, still mounted. Rolex was a star; Harley thought I was making him go back down the road at first, and balked. But after three tries, I got him through the gate. Then John ambled down through the herd to the fence line where he turned around and had a nice canter back up the hill. Harley thought this looked like fun and joined in. Then the rest of the gang thought it might be a race to dinner! We started a minor stampede.

The last day's chore entailed repairing Harley's stall gate. He cribbed it right off the latch last night and broke it! All the while we're hammering, drilling, and replacing screws, Harley's got his head right in the middle of things. This is the horse I expected to back off into the corner and snort at us, but no, he actually had his nose resting on the revolving drill head! I think it was lulling him to sleep as his lids began to droop and his head sagged. I had to pull his nose out of the way so John could see what he was doing--what a silly boy.

Snoozing in the February sun