August 05, 2008

Alfie's turn

Got home from work a bit late yesterday, but really wanted to ride Alfie seeing as he missed out on Sunday. I put Neo & Kody in yards and went and got Alfie. By this stage it was pretty much pitch black (stupid winter)... so I got a hanging light and propped that up in the tractor shed (she'll be right, mate!) and tacked Alfie up in there. His clip doesn't look as bad as it did on Sunday, or possibly I'm getting accustomed to it... He's still skinny, but I think the weight is beginning to go in the right places so I'm not too concerned at this stage. Will just keep pumping the feed into him, and see if the additional supplements help too.

So I got Alfie saddled up, and have still not put any stirrups on the saddles... so I climbed onto the quad bike and called Alfie over so I could clamber on him from there. He wasn't quite sure about me heaving myself onto him in this manner (he turned his neck right around and started sniffing at me like "what on earth are you doing up there ya crazy?"). He was very timid to begin with, but that is quite typical for him (and this is still only my 4th ride on him!)... but once he got into the swing of things he happily plodded up and down the driveway in the pitch black, using only the crunch of gravel under foot as our indicator that we were heading the right way. I was thinking "this is all going well!" then Pippa must have seen us with her super night vision and she called out and Alfie got the biggest fright and almost fell down in a heap! Poor fella... he had a bit of a shake and a worry - but didn't hoon off to do anything naughty. Once he got his bearings again he was good. Such a well-behaved man in the circumstances!

Fed Alfie in the shed and then put him out with Pippa for the night. Kept Kody and Neo in the yards. I'm switching which horses yard each night as I think it will help with Alfie's slight attachment to every horse on the planet.

My plan (surely only made to be broken) is to get all 3 of them ridden tonight. One of the Foxton Lancer's shows has been postponed and will be held this coming Sunday. Alfie and Kody aren't ready for it, though would both benefit from the drive and being tied to the truck to take it all in... but I'm wondering if I can get Neo sane enough to have a potter in the pleasure hack classes or something like that. He really is busting at the seams to go and do something... I've never seen him enjoying things so much and I'd like to take advantage of that and let him do some types of outings that we normally never would (I mean, it's Neo... he's not exactly your stock-standard showhack!).

Oh - and a ferral goat is living in our dog house - good thing we don't have a dog.

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