Expenses ...

Wow. Has it been a SPENDY first week of the new year. All totaled, I've spent nearly $750 on my two horses and dog (he had to go the vet yesterday for a recheck). Yikes!

So, to break that total down, board was nearly $400 for the two boys ... not a big deal because that is an expense that is already figured out on a monthly basis (and money is set aside to cover it). Then each had their teeth floated by Jim J on the 31st of December. I scored a bit of a deal, as he raised his prices $5/horse on January 1st. So for both teeth floats, it was $190. Then Gringo needed to get his hooves trimmed again, to the tune of $50. Plus factor in Tucker's (the dog) unexpected vet appointment = really expensive first week of the new year.

Backing up the week, on Wednesday I finally made it out to the barn again to ride. Because of some stomach issues (haha ... more to come later about what's causing that), I opted to work Gringo during my lesson and do a quick ride on Gus afterwards.

Gringo was a VERY GOOD boy again on Wednesday. His brain was functioning and firing on all cylinders. His attention span was pretty good too. Thank God. Sure beats what I was dealing with the last time I worked him.

After doing about 10 minutes of lunging, and not accomplishing anything, B decided to throw on Gus's Vienna side reins (sliding reins). Gringo put up with the changes really well (surprisingly) and finally started moving off like a horse and not the giraffe that he had been impersonating - quite well, I might add.

Once we accomplished a nice walk/trot/canter both directions (still having sticky issues on the left lead canter) we worked on long lining - which is slightly different then ground driving. In long lining, you work off the side of the horse, similar to how you work them while lunging. Where as in ground driving, you're working behind the horse. Anyways, with long lining, you can do lots more with regards to changing bend and change of gait ... you just have to be a bit more agile. Gringo and I eventually got the hang of it and managed to do a couple figure-8s at a trot. Success! He was a really good boy. Very proud of him.

Gus was a good boy as well on Wednesday. I opted to not lunge (tired of circles by then) and basically just hopped up on his back cold turkey. It's so nice having a horse you can do that with. We did mostly walk work, working on 10m spiral circles/figure-8s again then did the shoulder stretches. Trot work was kept short as my stomach was bothering me again, but in what little bit of trot we did, Gus was moving out evening and happily.

I'm hoping to do a snow day ride either this weekend or on Monday. It's supposed to be in the 30s on Monday. Whohoo!