2016 solo boarding school

Definitely no hay moving today. It was drizzly/rainy all day. Envoy wanted to keep his blanket on and looked at me like I was insane when I rode for 20 minutes. The bad weather really is not good for his poor back legs. We have an appointment for the vet, but he can't do it until the end of April. Until then, it's light work and "aspirin" for aches and pains. Poor guy.

I would too.

Got the hay done today. Itchy! I even rode when I was done. Now, it's shower and sleep time.

Bet your happy that's out of the way. Sleep tight.

Today was just a fun day. It was warm and windy, and we had a good time just walking around in the arena. Envoy is almost done with his shedding, and looks nice and shiny. Spring is great.

He sees the vet for his stifles on April 28. I don't want to wait, but my friend is going away for work, and we're sharing an appointment. It's going to be expensive, so better to share the farm call fee.

Sharing the fee is always a good plan. Glad he's almost shedded out. That moth eaten stage can be embarrsing.

Poor Kina refuses to be seen in public for a week or so. She gets so much fur for winter that it takes her a long time to find her beautiful spring clothes.

I think I'm going to ask my friend to teach me to ground drive Envoy today. It's something new, and he likes to learn. Since he is limited in what he can do riding, this is a good way to learn and I can see when he is starting to get "sticky."

Driving is so much fun.

We didn't get to it today. When I got to boarding school, my friend was sound asleep. It's so rare to get a good nap, so I just took a nice, slow ride in the sunshine around the pasture. Good thing. The sun went into hiding right after we were done. Envoy seemed to enjoy being out and about.

It's all good. And all of us understand naps.

No riding today. My pony was EXCITED by the weather change. We did a little free longing in the arena where he had a great time bucking and running. I figured he must have wanted a day off to just enjoy himself and be a horse.

It's good to be just a horse sometimes.

Envoy is going to make a trip home for a couple nights next week. The vet is coming for spring shots, so he might as well be here rather than my paying for another vet call to do his at boarding school. He will be happy to see Kina and to have a couple pasture days. He spent the day out with my friend's horses, and was not very nice to them. He kicked her huge gelding and separated the mare like he wanted to be a stallion. He bit the mare, but she was flirting with him. That's typical behavior, and he only removed hair, didn't break the skin. But, I don't think he deals well with her pampered herd. This is the first time I've seen stallion behavior from him. I wonder if he learned from Cree.

That sounds like a good idea. Trip fees are not cheap and when added in to other costs OUCH! He could have. What a silly boy glad no one was hurt.

I noticed a bite mark on his neck today. It looks like the boys were playing rough yesterday. Silly horses. No one is badly hurt, and they are all kind of back to normal, laid-back selves.

Very blustery day today. Envoy was very good in the arena despite the blowing things. Leaves kept jumping into the doorway, and then a barn cat scooted in. Envoy just looked and kept right on going. I was proud of him for not spooking at anything.

What a good boy. The barn cat is one thing but leaves can eat you.

Today he played rescue pony. A butterfly was trying to fly out of the arena window. Problem is that the window was closed, so the poor thing kept beating itself against the glass. He was curious, so he put his nose close to the window to snort. The butterfly was unimpressed. So, Envoy let me "parallel park" next to the window and put my dressage whip next to the window. The butterfly crawled on, and we walked slowly to the opening to let him fly away.

WOW! I would have loved to have seen a video of that.

It would be a pretty boring video. It took a long time to get the stick in the right position. So there was quite a long stretch of Envoy standing next to the wall playing with the bit, wagging his tail (not swishing), YAWNING.

Envoy comes home tomorrow for his vet appointment. Then, he goes back on Saturday for a few more weeks. After he has his stifle appointment (with a different vet at boarding school), he will come home for the summer. I know he's excited about getting a couple days on the grass.

I'm sure he is.

He's out in the pasture for a while. It might storm tonight, so he'll spend the night in the barn. He settled right in with the girls like he'd never left. I like having smart horses.