Fences...

Labor Day was awesome! After having John gone for a week I got to have him for a three day weekend! Take that Schlumberger! So, of course we went out to the barn to ride and clean. The camera died about 2 minutes into my ride, of course. So there is still no proof that my equitation isn't crappy! Overall Boomer was very good! He did test a little with trotting. He broke into the walk and wouldn't trot and was pinning his ears so I had John snap the longe whip. That worked! He started trotting around so fast I had to post to keep up! I used to be able to sit the trot on NSH saddle seat horses in patterns and whatnot. More recently it seems that I enjoy posting for that springy high legged stuff! Boomer was really good though. I really started to notice a difference with his steering. He seems to go where I point him most of the time! The only exception is corners. I now understand how dressage riders can talk for DAYS about corners. Boomer either takes to so deep that he has to dive out of it to avoid the fence or he takes it so shallow we end up 15 feet off of the next rail. I think that the next time we ride we will go for a walk up the gravel road and see how that goes.

Tuesday was a different day... I was filling up the water trough and I saw Grunt lunge at Boomer over his gate. I shouted at him and he backed off a little. Next thing I know, Grunt lunged again and I heard the soun dof hooves on metal and a squeal... And the gate flew open. Luckily Boomer went trotting away from all of this but I still had a broken gate to deal with. I ended up rigging it wil baling wire until John could come out and fix it. Which he did while I was at work. He put some stuff from AutoZone on the bolt and screwed it back into the shed. It was some sort of thermoset bonding agent. I'm just crossing my fingers I don't go out there and find the gate open. Boomer isn't exactly easy on fences.

Boomer's set up is a little hard to describe. He is in an area a little bigger than an acre. It is divided in half. The top half is barbed wire and has the round pen and a tree. It also holds the tack sheds. The bottom half of the acre is divided into four paddocks. Boomer is in one of the paddocks. Grunt and Penelope are in the top half plus a paddock. I would love for Boomer to have more space for grazing and playing but the top half is barbed wire and his paddock is pole and horse panel. So, I just can't let myself put him in that situation. If the barn ever finishes the fence and replaces the barbed wire, I would absolutly turn him out with his friends!
The barbed wire is why I am concerned about his escape. If his gate came open and I wasn't there he wouldn't be in danger of any roads or being loose. He would just be in another area that is secured with barbed wire. About a month ago Penelope got a leg in the wire and was bleeding pretty badly. Her owner could'nt get her to stand for treatment and put on as much Furazone as she could, but it did heal up on its on. Now there is a scar, but she has never shown signs of lameness.