Playing Around

It’s been a rather slow week. Numerous horse facilities in northern Colorado have been placed under quarantine in an effort to halt the spread of vesicular stomatitis. Around 170 horses have been infected by the virus the last we heard. Archer and Thistle are doing fine, no hint of catching the virus so far. The weather was cool last week which helped to keep the bugs down. This week however the weather’s warmer and the flies and the mosquitoes…etc…were out in force. The quarantine is really making life dull; no leaving the property, which means no mountain trails this month. It is likely that we may be under quarantine until the first or second frost, so still no plans to bring Aliy north.

Keeley and Archer have been playing with some “liberty” type work. It looks good so far but nothing reliable yet. Keeley’s also been teaching Archer to come to a whistle call and that seems to be working pretty well. The two are still doing some harness ground work while we are looking to buy a harness.

It’s the first week of the month so Thistle did some bucking again. Thistle’s bucking coincides with her heat cycle. Once the heat is over so is the bucking. The bucking Thistle does now is nothing compared to what she used to do regularly, not just when she is cycling. The biggest problem is that Cadence gets to laughing so much she missing giving Thistle the voice correction that can stop the buck before happens. A secret we aren’t telling Thistle, because she be grumpy to learn, that her bucks have become so soft Cadence hardly even notices them anymore. We can never know for sure but Thistle may be Paso, or some other gaited breed, mixed with Quarter Horse.