The Barn-Saga Drags Doggedly Onwards

So I'm sitting here outside in the wonderful Friday afternoon sunshine with my laptop typing this, and I refuse to let worry creep into this cheery weekend. First of all, THANK YOU GUYS for all your encouragement and sympathy! Your comments definitely reminded me that we've all been there with our horses, and all we can do is deal with these things as they come up in a gracious but firm manner, and remember to put our horses first no matter what others might say about it. :)

I won't really go into things in detail, but I've been notified that the BO is taking over management of the Upper Barn starting one the first. Le sigh. So our days at this barn may be numbered yet. The only good I can see (rather, hope!) come out of this is that the BO might start feeding the Upper Barn what she is feeding the Lower Barn, which would be a win for me, considering the UB is effectively feeding 2 flakes per day that are just broken into pieces to seem like 4 :( BUT, I continually remind myself and have been totally comforted by the fact that Spartan is happy as a clam about being up there, and this is probably the longest he's ever gone without any kind of incident whatsoever: a month-ish. And his weight isn't bad (do the 11lbs of premium grain I feed have anything to do with it?lol). It's not great either, but it's okay, which I think I can deal with in exchange for his peace of mind. And I guess I can keep burning my paychecks by supplementing with my own hay or whatever in this lovely drought. But anyways, I'm hoping that the hay is one thing that will change! But nothing else! For example, the "no turnout for over an hour" rule I was being floated previously at the LB. There's much more to be said, but blah blah blah blah blah, I'm leaving for Virginia in 3 months where Spartan will live in pastoral paradise so whatever. Freedom lies on the horizon.

Yes, this is potential future barn #1. I think I  want to live in that pasture!

Anybody have any objections to mind-blowing trail-rides?

That hill on the left must be galloped.

On to Spartan updates then! Where exactly are we on our conditioning schedule, you ask? WELL. We have just completed a week of 25 minute rides with <1 lap trot-1 lap walk-1 lap trot> in both directions, a total of 4 trot laps for the ride. When we first started this the beginning of the week, I could seriously swear Spartan was off at the trot with all the tripping, hinney-losing, and body-dragging he was doing with one circle of trot. I even jumped off at one point and had him trot around without me, 100% certain he would be short on that damn LH and all my hopes and dreams of having a rideable horse would tumble away on the breeze, but he was totally.dead.even.How. I think that was just a reality check for me that this horse was WEAK; there was a reason all this conditioning stuff was going on in the first place. And guys, yesterday he was amaze. He trotted so soundly, so much more willingly, 100x more balanced-ly. Conditioning guys, it's a thing. They actually get conditioned and stuff. 

Annnnnd I love my horse--he is so smart, it's eerie. The First thing the UB manager said to me when we were talking about Spartan's infamous shenanigans was: He's just too smart; his brain is always running.

Case-in-point: She told me what Spartan does with shavings. I died. Apparently, when they bring a bag of shavings into his stall, he gets so excited that he grabs the bag from said-person, lays it down and opens it with his mouth, and then proceeds to drag the bag all around the stall with his leg to spread the shavings across his own floor. Freakin. Hilarious.

Also, on Tuesday when I was trying to teach him to open the gate like I had shown him the day before so we could leave the indoor and ride outside, it was just nottttt happening for us. That thing is kinda heavy and Spartan was failing hard at getting close enough. So my friend asks me if I need help and I turn my head to talk to her, and Spartan walks forward, puts his nose on the gate, walks that sucker completely open, steps outside, and just stops and gives me the sideways eye. He just totally knew what I was trying to do, and pulled a, Jeez mom, need a hand much? My friend saw and just burst out laughing. Uhh, who says it's the human who needs to be opening the gates? I think this way is much more efficient :)