I hope you & your family have a Merry Christmas!
This week, we sure had a beautiful week for mid-December & a good week for Newt at that. We had several days in the 40s, 50s, & even the 60s. We ended up spending our time with groundwork outside of the arena. We spent time at the jumping logs, jumping over barrels, trekking through the weeds, & improving his handle & lightness on the ground in the trees. We also spent several days ponying from another horse. Day 1 was ugly & he sure put my saddle horse to the test when he would resist coming forward. By the end of Day 1, he was coming up off of halter pressure willingly & trotting beside us as we made our way up & down the lane. Day 2 had a few little tantrums before getting with the program & Day 3 was much better as we made a trip out to the pasture. I also introduced the sled to Newt for the first time on Friday. He was a little look-y at first, but I was impressed as I anticipated a little bit bigger reaction to it for his first time. Initially, I had him follow it while dragging. It makes quite a bit of noise as it drags across the ground without snow. In no time, he was pretty comfortable with it & I was able to let the rope out longer & longer so that it would drag beside, & later, behind him. I briefly introduced him to the rope touching his hindquarters while dragging & while he first wanted to react a bit, it didn't take long for him to understand that wasn't necessary. I had hoped to get back into the arena on Saturday, but the rain came earlier than forecasted & we spent the day prepping for the storm as the snow amounts rose drastically overnight.
Next week will be dependent on what this storm brings. It's a bit up in the air right now, but we're forecasted to get 6-14" of snow with a couple of days of high winds. Hindsight is 20/20, but I put the laydown off as that would be easier to do with a little bit of snow (not anticipating the forecast to increase so much) in the round pen versus slipping & sliding as we worked on groundwork outside. If we can get into the round pen, we'll move forward with the laydown. If not, we'll spend some time playing with the sled.
- Lexy Nuesch
Next week's update will be posted on Friday.
I do my best to get these updates posted in a timely manner, but it's not uncommon for me to be outside until after dark, depending on the weather, my schedule, & who gets worked when so updates will sometimes be posted quite late in the evening. Don't be alarmed if you don't see your update right away. In rare cases, I may have to push them until the next morning, but I'll reach out & let you know if so.
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