Tuesday, October 30, 2007

This week went really well with Bella relaxing a lot on the lunge line and me studying some of the Parelli lessons. Overall she is ready for the next business I can throw at her which might be lunging under saddle. We'll see. Meanwhile, Diane got an invitation from a neighboring ranch to put her horses out on their wonderful pasture. She is leaving for a month and thought it would be a nice vacation for her mare, yearlings, and old Mochie to get to meander hundreds of acres while she was away. I raised my hand and asked if Bella could be included. Yep, that made 5 horses, with Mochie being their guardian, out to pasture for at least a month with nothing but nature to bother them. We rode them over last evening and unsaddled right at the gate. They hung around waiting for us to open the gate and take them back home until one by one they got the idea that we weren't making them go back. We had to wait for Joe to pick us up then we didn't have to lug the saddles the few miles, so we got to love on all of them and then watch them head back down to where there is a huge spring and tons of grass. What could be finer for muscle and brain development than swatting flies and grazing, walking for miles, and having no human stress. Sounds good to me. I'm going to be gone a little during November anyway, and thinking of Bella standing for days on end wasn't a good solution. We'll pick up the next phase of training when her vacation is over.

3 comments:

Donna said...

I wish I could be put out in a nice pasture for a month or so! Sounds like a wonderful way to spend the time.

Rising Rainbow said...

I'm not sure what the grass is like down there. Is it not rich enough that you have to worry about "tranisitioning" a horse onto it? I know here, I would have to do something like that gradually or risk founder. But what a great treat for Bella.

Molly said...

Very good point you make, MiKael. Usually throwing horses onto pasture when they aren't used to it can be troublesome. These hardy little Mexican horses have enough time out in the desert to not get in trouble. We had a problem with some very rich hay at one point when some "new" owners decided to overfeed green alfalfa.