The boys

I love working with young horses, and seeing how they improve with every work. Last time I roped Drifter's feet, he had quite a bit of resistance. The idea is, I pick up the foot with the rope, and when he isn't fighting it, I let the foot down to rest his toe on the ground. I work each leg until he repeatedly lets me pick it up and put it down without fighting. In this video you can see that the fuss is fairly minimal, which is a nice improvement over the first time.

He's doing really well with longeing too. I bit him up every time now, and he is getting really consistent in how he carries himself. And he always picks up the correct lead, and balances himself well. This is not a clumsy horse at all, he is quite athletic.

After hand grazing the mares, and turning Beamer out in the round pen, the afternoon was so beautiful that I decided to take Beamer for a little ride instead of just putting him back in his pen. 

His knee still causes him to walk stiffly  so I only go for occasional short rides on him just to keep him mentally happy. We went down to the dyke to look at the river, winding our way through the bush to get there. (Bareback)

He walks out so eagerly! And he has such a nice back for bareback riding. I may take him out more often. 

We stood quietly for a while, just listening to the river before resuming the ride back home.

Meanwhile.....

Baby-in-the-belly is growing, and not moving around as much now. Belle's bag still has some room to fill up more. As of today. April 13, she is 322 days, so it's a viable foal now. Next Sunday will be a full 11 months from her breeding date, so that's when I will start foal watch. 

If you want to put in a guess for the foaling contest, all the info is in this post: The Guessing Game. You can leave a comment there or on this post; all the current guesses are listed on the sidebar for you to look at.

Riding day 19