A Rainy Day!

I had all the best intentions of heading out and doing a nice, long trail ride today. But, it's pouring rain and even the most diehard trail rider would be hard-pressed to get excited about being wet, cold and muddy. So, we had some lessons in the arena, and now I'm sitting in front of the computer, updating my websites and wondering if reading a book during the day, while not actually ill, would make me feel too guilty. Juries still out on that one.

Things have been going fairly well - Galen and I did our first 50 a few weeks back and I'm ready for my next one. We have one planned at the end of the month - the Klickitat Trek, and until then, we're doing conditioning rides, I'm working on getting my saddle a bit more comfortable and working with some of the other horses. You can read the story of our first 50 at http://atsablog.blogspot.com/.

I have two mares due to foal a bit later this year - Alav is due June 28th and Ria is due July 13th, so I suspect I won't be doing any rides for a few weeks there. I am looking forward to these foals, although I hope I don't have the same problems we had last year. We had three mares with red bag deliveries, most likely due to fescue toxicity. Alav and Ria will be switched over to alfalfa only fairly soon (which I suspect they won't mind at all!) so we (hopefully) won't have the same problem this year. I need to get some of the youngsters started under saddle, and breeding season will be starting very soon for us. Khano, my stallion, thinks we should have started a few weeks ago, but I really don't like having foals too early, as they then have to contend with cold weather, mud, rain, mud, and more mud. June or July babies tend to have warmer weather, no mud, more green grass and everyone is happier all around. Tekes don't have futurities or a mandatory January 1st birthday, so there is very little reason to have very early foals like there is in QHs or TBs. The warmer weather also makes for a much nicer foal watch - I often spend at least part of the nights on foal watch in the barn, even though I have a video monitor, and freezing isn't much fun.

Well, I think I've overcome my guilt about curling up on the sofa and reading during the day and it IS Mother's Day, so I think I'll go do that.

Until next time,

C.