2 hacks...and some poetry

I had some extra time this afternoon, as I'm post-call from work (so I got to go home at 2pm!), so I got to spend some extra quality time at the barn. As the weather has cooled off a little bit here, and neither of the boys was scheduled for anything very strenuous in terms of workouts, I decided on a day of hacking-out for both of them. 

Huey got his first ride out of the arena since going back to work -- a 20 min tour of the farm, trying to avoid the big hills, and it was quite a success. Huey has always been a fabulous trail horse...totally unflappable...and one of our favorite parts of our old routine was to do our work, then pull off the tack and cool out with a bareback stroll around the farm. I think Huey has been getting bored with walking in the arena...there's only so much you can do to mix it up! I'm a firm believer of hacking out...giving the horses (and us!) a mental break from the arena and doing some fitness work at the same time. The area around the farm is great for riding out -- you can go out for hours through some beautiful countryside. Even during show season, we spend at least one day a week hacking out for at least an hour...and with all the hills around here the horses get quite a workout!

Surf got the big hack today to see how the leg would hold up -- we were out for about 1.5 hours with his buddy, sunny the 22 year old wonder pony -- and he worked out of his stiffness and the swelling was almost completely gone when we got back. Our vet wants us to keep Surf moving...and it does seem to help with the swelling. We had a pretty easy hack...did mostly walking and maybe 10min of trot mixed in. Surf will probably do flat work tomorrow and saturday...and maybe pop over a few fences on saturday if we're going to the horse trial sunday. I'm lucky enough that he knows his job over fences...so as much as I'd love to school a few fences before sunday, if we don't get a chance, it'll be ok :)

On a somewhat tangential note -- but related to Huey's uncatchableness -- here is a poem about Huey and how hard it is to catch him. Seriously, Surf and Huey's owner (and her husband) are full-time poets (and part-time horse people) who've published real books of poetry and such...including one about catching Huey :) Actually she's written a memoir of sorts (largely about Surf Guitar) that will be out in bookstores around the holidays...it's kind of cool to be able to check out a book at the library and read poems about your horses :)

Click here to read the poem "Catching Huey" and see Huey's story about going from OTTB to eventer

Click here to read a poem about Surf Guitar

And Click Here to read Surf Guitar's Story...and to see why he's the soul of our barn

I'll end this rather long and rambling entry with a quote from Huey & Surf's owner's writing that I love but can't explain why...but that I've referred to during the past several months of dealing with Huey's suspensory, Surf's soundness issues, etc as I think it expresses how fortunate I feel to have the opportunity -- however long or short it may be -- to learn from these 2 neat old guys:

"We gave him the time off he needed, and he came sound. I started working him slowly, thinking that he'd tell me when he wanted to quit and that I'd keep riding him until he told me otherwise. From Huey I'd learned that every day is a gift. From Surf I learned that every hour is a gift as well. Every minute is your birthday and your Christmas if you want it to be." ~ Julia Wendell