Summer lingers

It was in the high 70's here on Saturday, and absolutely gorgeous. Sunday has been breezier, hazy, and you can feel a storm building, but nothing's arrived just yet and it's almost dark. It's been a perfect weekend to do all manner of outdoor things. Like laundry....

Just kidding - lol!

Oh, lots of laundry did get done (I even hung some of it up a couple times over, since one clothesline dumped everything on the ground twice and I finally left it there sans clothes - I suspect the screw is stripped), but we had horse time, too.

Saturday we dragged H out of bed (before noon! horrors!) and out to the home football game. We lost by 27-28 in a double overtime heartbreaker after a hard fought game that saw neither team on the board at halftime. I'm not a huge football fan, but it's good to see the stands mostly full and see people standing up to cheer the boys on. (Our team plays on the high school's field - the 85,000 plus that turn out for Nebraska's Huskers? Well let's just say we don't see that type of turnout. Not even on a very good day!)

Afterwards T and I headed out to collect the critters, weight tape them and get some wormer shot down their gullets. A task I'm happy to report complete with minimal drama. I have a tendency to weight tape, and then either forget to write down the weight, or forget to adjust the wormer slide. (Lots of fun to discover the later when you've just successfully inserted the tube into the reluctantly opened mouth, only to discover the plunger won't actually depress... grrr!) T has a different technique than I generally use which involved standing sort of facing them but off to the side. It works for him, although personally, I'd rather stand a bit closer to their front shoulders out of possible pawing range....

Even Sahara, our chronic objecter, was only a mildly disgruntled. Were they perfect? No, but they weren't awful, either. I really do think the wormer itself makes a difference, and the applicator tube style, as well. This stuff - Iver-Care - didn't smell terrible, and none of them made nasty ICK faces at all. I made a note so hopefully I can get the same brand next time Ivermectin's up in the rotation.

Finished with that, it was sheath-cleaning time. Sunny was his usual pleasant self - of course, there was food involved! I do still click/treat for this, since it doesn't happen all that often, and I figure some positive reinforcement doesn't hurt. Since my hands were wet & slippery with soap, etc., I clicked & T stood at his head & treated.

Lots of gunk later - probably should have been checking more frequently this summer - he was done, and we used the same approach with Thunder.

Him I clicked a bit more frequently, but since the warm water & soap helped soften & loosen the crud enough that it washed off pretty easily, he didn't object at all. Good boy!

Sunday we'd planned to go riding, but then T started building shelves in the basement. Since I've been pushing for shelves so that I can reorganize down there, I couldn't really abandon him. So our ride turned into a somewhat abbreviated session with the youngsters. T led me around a bit on Thunder & Amyra, and then he sat on Amyra for the first time. The difference in weight had her bracing her feet and rearranging her balance a bit, but she was fine with it.

We mainly worked on whoa, and on walking ahead on leg pressure. Since they know whoa on the ground, it translated pretty well. Moving ahead is still new, but neither of them was anxious about the process. It probably helps that they've seen me pop up on Sunny so often out there.

Since they haven't been at all fussed by anything thus far, I wasn't nervous, so we had a nice positive circle of energy going rather than an escallating tension situation. (VERY BIG GRIN!!)

Amyra's still narrow, and she's hit another growth spurt that's left her hind end higher than her front end - again. I'm really glad we chose to wait until next year to do serious training with her. Thunder's probably big enough, but he could stand to fill out, too. He's gotten a LOT taller this summer, now he needs to catch up sideways a bit. They both still have that gangly look to them.

Looking back, Sunny was narrow as a three-year-old, too. I could easily have waited an extra year with him, but I was anxious to start riding, and everyone said three was fine to start an half-Arab. (Well, 7/8's, if you want to be technical about it, and since the 1/8th that was supposed to get him his spots didn't take, without papers you sure couldn't prove he's not a purebred by looking.)

Do I think it did any damage having him started then? No, probably not.... The trainer was a slight man, and he took his time. But Sunny worked hard. Not just arena work, but out across country, as well. Lots of wet saddle blankets. And there's a big difference between 3 & 4 size-wize.

Horses are started awfully early - TBs are racing at two, two-year-old futurities are standard in the QH world, and lots of other breeds are routinely ridden young. What do you think? Mentally & physically, what are the differences starting a young one vs. starting a slighly older horse? I know some of you have experence with this - is there an ideal age for your particular discipline or breed? Not what the industry says is best, but the age you'd choose if you were just starting one for you?