Smoky

Smoky has been here for a little over a week now, and he's settling in ok. He's getting a little beat up by one of his pasture mates, and I fear injury. But, the pasture is big and he can avoid Kenly if he wants. He's just a love bug though and wants to be friends with him.

His ankle is doing well, I think. I've got him on supplements and he wears a Professionals Choice velcro boot while he's turned out for support. Thankfully he doesn't run around much unless everybody does. Have not noticed any unusual heat or swelling.

I've been taking him into the arena to work on ground manners, paying attention, getting comfortable, and introducing longing. He appears to never have been taught longing, and it's a valuable tool, so that's what we're working on. I started by just having him circle me on a long lead at the walk and learning "whoa" and how to reverse by turning towards me. He was a quick study and learned the reverse fast, but "whoa" is still taking some work.

The first time on a longe line, he was great at the walk, but a got a little excited when the other horse being ridden in the arena started trotting. He thought he should be trotting, too, and didn't know how to do it on the longe line - he started forward and then felt pressure on the halter so he pulled away, stopped, backed up. Typical "I dunno how to longe" behavior. We went back to walking, and I let him eyeball the horse moving around the ring for a bit. It's all valuable. He needs to learn how to go at the gait I'm asking him to go at rather than what all the horses around him are doing (racehorse stuff).

Then on Monday, I had the ring to myself, so we practiced some "whoa" and change of direction on the long lead rope, and then moved onto the longe line. He's pretty good at the walk, still not understanding "whoa" from a distance, but I'm currently reinforcing by trying to step forward and using the carrot stick in front of his face. He changes direction perfectly once stopped though, to point of nearly expecting it, so I will have to change it up on him. Then I tried to get him trotting a little, which took some effort and a few touches of the carrot stick to his butt, and then it was forward!pressure!confusion!backup! but I stayed patient and encouraging and calmed him down. And tried it again. The second time was better, and the third even better. We made almost one whole circle of pretty trotting (with no super obvious limp!) and called it a day. He got lots of pets and scratches and calmness.

My focus right now is to get him moving and start building some strength and balance from the ground before I add my weight to his thin body and stressed ankle. Of course I must be careful when longing because small circles can aggravate the fetlock, so I am giving him plenty of line and moving in a large circle myself (reminds me of rehabbing Encore's stifle - he already knew how to longe, so I would actually trot him on the longe line all the way around the arena, walking quickly, sometimes jogging to keep up). I also poultice his ankle after asking him to trot any time.

So far, I've seen that Smoky is curious, a thinker (except for that one exceptional spook in his stall), smart, but he also seems like a bit of a worrier, or a little tense. So everything I'm doing, I'm trying to make it positive and rewarding, not just a release of pressure. 

Summer

Elusive summer, how we dream of her, and when she arrives we wish she was different. I am a summer girl, always hoping summer is better than last, striving for an ideal, pining for the past and in anguish about the future. And when summer feels stagnant, I rejoice in it. I relish the warming of the days, and these quotes give me all the summer feels.

“Press close, bare-bosomed Night! 
Press close, magnetic, nourishing Night!
Night of south winds! Night of the large, few stars!
Still, nodding Night! Mad, naked, Summer Night!” 
― Walt Whitman

“Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under trees on a summer's day, listening to the murmur of the water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time.” 
― John Lubbock, The Use Of Life

“At these times, the things that troubled her seemed far away and unimportant: all that mattered was the hum of the bees and the chirp of birdsong, the way the sun gleamed on the edge of a blue wildflower, the distant bleat and clink of grazing goats.” 
― Alison Croggon, The Naming

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“I could smell the curves of the river beyond the dusk and I saw the last light supine and tranquil upon tideflats like pieces of broken mirror, then beyond them lights began in the pale clear air, trembling a little like butterflies hovering a long way off.”
― William Faulkner, The Sound and the Fury

“Summer is the time for dreaming, and then you have to stop. But some people go on dreaming all their lives, and cannot change.” 
― Knut Hamsun

“Every summer there are a number of nights, not many, but a number, when everything is perfect. The light, the warmth, the smells, the mist, the birdsong – the moths. Who can sleep? Who wants to?” 
― Fredrik Sjöberg, The Fly Trap: A Book about Summer, Islands and the Freedom of Limits

“Thinking these things made space and time around her, the way saying 'only June' had when she was a child hoarding summer.” 
― Zibby Oneal, In Summer Light

“In the morning light, I remembered how much I loved the sound of wind through the trees. I laid back and closed my eyes, and I was comforted by the sound of a million tiny leaves dancing on a summer morning.” 
― Patrick Carman, The Tenth City