Rides and changes

I would say things are going along and nothing has changed here at LogDog Acres but that would be a lie.  While some things are still the same, other things are changing very fast.  The TWH is still lame though he seems to be every so slightly better.  I am not going to really check him until Friday so we will see but he doesn't seem as ouchy when walking from the arena to the stall.  That is a good thing!  The donkey is recovering nicely and is at least weight bearing on her hind leg.  Last week I gave her several days of stall rest, much to her extreme dismay, and it seemed to really help.  She may have totally destroyed her stall each day and brayed constantly but she is now walking fairly normal and is relishing the time outside.

Things are changing all over though.  We had to get a bigger tractor as we were burning our current tractor up.  The hydraulics were being maxed out almost every time we used it and we could smell the pump starting to burn.  Instead of running a new, not paid off tractor into the ground we traded it in on a bigger one that has more than double the hydraulic capacity.  I used it last night for the first time and was impressed, it handled the routine task of the poo box without any issues what so ever.  With our new tractor we are starting to clear some of the brush to make it pasture.  Some of the attachments we have just ROCK.  The chipper we got is amazing and this thing called a Ratchet Rake makes clearing briars and these stupid, thorny, invasive species Russian Olive tree a breeze.  We have a lot to go but how quickly things are being cleared make my outlook on the pasture pretty bright.  Also my super awesome boarder is unfortunately leaving, the daughter has lost interest and the mother can't justify having a horse that she herself can't ride.  Since he is a 10.2 hand pony, only the daughter can ride him.  Thus they have sold the pony and he is being picked up here in a few hours.  The mother has said she will probably lease the TWH for herself when the weather is better so we will see.  Finally, among the list of changes, I am getting a horse in for 30 days of refresher training, they want the horse to be able to stand while being mounted, stand while being groomed, know basic leg commands and such.  He is coming this evening so no rest for the weary!

On the riding front I have been riding the App and making okay progress.  On Saturday I rode him and he wasn't being super cooperative.  RB4 was trying to help with giving a mini "lesson"/pointers to try to help.  Some of it did, some of it didn't but I appreciate the feedback.  I played with the first level 1 dressage test to see how it rode.  O.M.G.  It is much, much harder than a few years ago when I played with first level.  It is also extremely hard to do in a 50x100 arena (a small dressage arena is 66x132).  Those extra feet would sure come in handy!  I may have to ride it outside in my pasture to get a real feel for it.  Hopefully it gets easier on a day the App decides to work with me instead of against me. 

I will probably be blogging about my training rides as a way to keep track of the progress, hope no one minds.  I don't see the point of making a blog for 30 days of info.  Here's to hoping things settle down a little!