We have a new boarder.

The lady seems nice enough. She made a good first impression, and she seems to really care about her horse. Her mare is REALLY cute (tall, well built, bay roan appaloosa). They just got here yesterday and I was told it took them four hours to get the mare into the trailer. O.O That's almost worse than Norman. lol

I don't know how long she'll be staying, however. I think she's already unhappy. She's paying full board and I don't think she was informed that she has to clean her own stall and whatnot. I hope it works out because she's really friendly and we could use more reasonable people there.

It'll be interesting to see how it plays out.

I will never cease to be amazed.

I've found that most horses generally fall into one of two categories. You have the saintly, almost irrationally patient horses, and you have the ones who aren't so tolerant. I find myself shaking my head all the time at what some horses put up with.

Norman, for example, is one of the super-tolerant horses, and I really wish he wasn't like that. A lot of it is his breed. He has a very high pain tolerance and he's hard to read because of it. Just last week, I was lunging him and when I put the side reins on, I noticed he was playing with his tongue and the bit looked... weird. And then I saw that the bit was under his tongue. O.O His mouth was closed and he was bright and alert for the whole ten minutes before he finally opened his mouth enough to see it. I felt horrible. It must have been uncomfortable, but for some reason, he just put up with it.

If that had been Victor, he would have been gaping and tossing his head the minute the bridle was on. That's one thing I'm grateful for. He lets me know right away if something's wrong and he isn't about to suffer a fool (good thing he's not Cynthia's horse. She'd be six feet under by now). I will say that I prefer the intolerant horses for that reason.

On the other hand, Reba would definitely fall into the irrationally tolerant category. She gets ridden into the ground and handled by ignorant people/inexperienced riders regularly and she never puts a foot wrong. Horses like that are worth their weight in gold. It's worrying me more and more because of her age. She's noticeably more sway backed than she was when I first met her and I've noticed that she's stiff when she comes out of her stall. It's more prominent in the winter months as well, and I think she might be a little arthritic. Not that anyone who rides her is likely to care.

So, what are your stories? I'm interested to hear from you. Have you ever encountered one of those amazingly kind horses and if so, did they have good or bad owners?

Post- lotto dream barn?

We all fantasize about our perfect barns. Here is what mine would be:

Situated on 30-50 acres with state-of-the-art facilities. I'd have an indoor arena with two sections of the barn on either side. The whole building would be heated and I'd have at least 30 stalls. It would be a training/boarding/lesson facility and all my lesson horses would be feedlot rescues and ex-racehorses. I'd have a few grooms and trainers on staff that specialize in rehabilitation and retraining.

I'd have two tack rooms, wash racks, and feed rooms (one for each section) plus a lounge, an office, outdoor arena, and a little store. The barn would be open to all disciplines but specialize in jumping and dressage. The pastures would have a creek running through them and lots of trees. I'd have a long, asphalt driveway that led to the main entry and an area with a fountain and benches. I would also take in auction horses and get them back into shape, retrain them, and sell them to good homes. I'd also put Norman in dressage training and have someone give him some show experience.

I want to make a blueprint of it sometime... I have it all planned out, just in case I get lucky.

I want to hear from you-- what would you do if you suddenly came into a lot of money?

I love our farrier.

Norman was scheduled for a trimming yesterday and our farrier pointed out that he didn't really need it. It's a small fortune to have a draft trimmed ($50 without shoes) so that was cool. What an honest guy. He did trim up some uneven edges and only charged ten bucks, and he took the time to explain how winged edges effect soundness and how to tell exactly when a horse needs to be trimmed. I luffs him.

I was also pleasantly surprised when he said that Norman has exceptional feet.

Usually the drafts you see at shows have huge, square shoes that are heavy and make the horse lift his feet higher. The farrier told us that horses shod like that usually have arthritis by age six. Now I know why the horses I see at the fair have such hideous feet. And I thought draft people were generally decent folks. :( Just goes to show where the horse world is going.