My poor horse probably thought I'd forgotten about him because I hadn't seen him since Saturday. Why?? GRADUATION!!!!! Finally finished my Master's!! My classmate, Ram, was overwhelmed by Penn's graduation ceremony. I hadn't thought about it because I did my undergrad at Penn and had done it all before in the front of the line last time. This time it was the middle of the line with the PhD (hi Dr. Jess!) in the back of the line. Luckily, the rain held off until the evening. But, a couple days of madness took me away from my boy.
One good thing I did was mention to my friend Rhoda, who rode and took many lessons as a teen, has ridden Daniel a half dozen times, lives less than 2 miles from Tory Hill and has been wanting to get back to riding... that it would really help me if she wanted to put some exercise rides on him a few times a week. I figured if she rode him twice a week, and I ride him two or three times a week, we'll get him back into a shape other than *round*... So one of the days I couldn't get there, Rhoda did and she said that it was quite fun (she had some concerns that either Daniel wouldn't behave if I wasn't there, or that she'd have trouble saddling him because she's quite petite!)
Last night, the plan was FEET! I hadn't done them in almost a week and a half, he's had a lot of hoof wall growth, and I needed to attack it in stages. Luckily, Dawn was there when I got there, and YES, had new rasps! So, I bought a new rasp, and, although it doesn't go through his hooves like buttah, it's way better than the old one that was fast getting dull.
Dawn told me to concentrate on 10 to 2, and I did, but I also went all the way around, knocking down some of the new growth. If I can hit it again tomorrow, and a night next week, I should have it all knocked back to normal... then I can get back to weekly trims.
