Another Dreary Day............

I am starting to wonder if we will ever get decent weather this year. We have been in the worst, most miserable weather pattern for weeks, and it just won't let up. Rain, rain, rain and more rain. Since I have a couple horse shows coming up, I had to get out and work with Chance. If I didn't, then she would sit for a few weeks and I hate doing that. The rain was threatening, but when I first went out it was dry. I wanted to try out the cool measuring stick my OH bought me. Since I am keeping track of how much Chance grows, it will make measuring so much easier then the measuring tape.

Chance measures 13.1 hh at the wither and 13.3 1/2 hh at the butt. I turned the measuring stick around so you all could see it, isn't it cool? Please excuse my OH's picture taking, he seemed to have forgotten how to use the camera.



Then I lunged her as usual. The round pen was a little slippery in spots with a few mud puddles, so it made lunging a little difficult. I just did some light lunging and worked on walk and trot voice commands. She really picked up the walk command. I was very proud of her. She picked up the whoa command so quickly months ago, that the second that word comes out of my mouth, she stops immediately, even if she is having a "moment", which she is having less of. So I figured she would pick up the other voice commands just as quick.



Before you know it, the clouds opened up and it started to rain. Great. I think every day off I have, it rains. I mean, I have only been on one trail ride this whole year! Chance kept swerving around the mud puddles and slick spots.



Chance lunging perfectly. Look at her mane fly! Her mane is getting so long. I just love it!



It always makes me laugh when I go through the pictures on my camera after my OH uses it. Looks like he got distracted while I was lunging Chance and decided to take pictures of the planes overhead. Silly! He should have zoomed in though.



I have only two real challenges with Chance. One is clipper training and the other is mud puddles. Since my round pen had a few mud puddles, we decided to do mud puddle training. She will not walk through puddles at all, which doesn't surprise me. A lot of horses don't care for them. But what really makes no sense to me is that she will wade through her "ditch" that is full of water and I mean literally almost up to her knees in muddy water, but mud puddles? No way! So we spent some time working on that. I could get her up to the edge and she would plant her feet and refuse to budge. At least she isn't overreacting like she used too, when she would rear and throw a huge fit. Now she just stands there and just won't move.

"Come on Chance, you can do it! Just one more step!"



There we go!! I think it took us maybe 15 minutes to get her front feet in, then it was time to go for all 4!



This was not the easiest thing to do, Chance DID NOT want to go into that puddle. I would have to send her off on my 12' line, then bring her back to rest by the puddle, send her off, rest by the puddle. She finally realized that the puddle was a good thing, that she got to rest by the puddle, that it wasn't going to swallow her up and eat her. I got her to stop and stand quietly in the puddle, then we walked through it and I called it a day on puddle training. Oh, and you should see my round pen now. It is literally a lake. I could swim in it. Really.



Clipping is still an issue. She did better with her muzzle, and I can run the clippers all over her head and neck without any problems. But she still does not like it when I start to clip her bridle path. So we are still slowly working on that. I look really grouchy, probably because I was really grouchy. This rain that won't stop is really making me be a grump. Seriously. I don't get this way, but I have totally had it. I am up to my eyeballs in mud and water, and it's the 2nd week of June!



Then it was time to de-worm. She is a pro at de-worming. Never been a problem. I just put one hand over her nose to hold her head, stick the tube in her mouth and push the paste in, easy!



We had one nice day this week, yesterday. Then the rain moved back in last night and it would not stop, again! When I got off work, I had to go to my oil change place, because they installed my rear windshield wiper incorrectly. Actually I am not even sure what they did, but it looked like they broke it. The arm was sticking out and it wouldn't go down into the little holder thing that holds it in place when not using the wiper. So as I was heading out of the little town I work in, this is what I see. Oh goodness. I was heading right into another dimension. The clouds were a light gray where I was and then they turned extremely dark. I just had to get my cell phone out and take a picture. I don't think I have ever seen clouds so dark here before.



I was a little scared of what I might be driving into. We don't get tornado's here, but I sure felt like one was going to appear at any moment.



I almost felt like I was in Kansas.



Before you know it, the dark clouds disappeared and the sky went back to the normal, gray, rain clouds.

I am at another horse show for the next 4 days. This one is local, so it's only a 45 minute drive and I will get to come home and sleep in my own bed. Yeah! But the days will be really long, so I might not be able to come visit you all until next week. So I'll catch up with you all then!