@[Braveheart]: There is no set age when you should stop cantering or even riding a horse.They age at different rates and as long as they are sound and othervise feel up for the task, there's no problem riding them well into their 20ties. Keeping them moving is also great for them as it can help them stay in better condition longer. One of our boarders has a 27 year old mare, who she still rides several times a week on trails. And I believe they go all gaits. Recently she had the horse taken to a vet clinic and one younger vet student thought the horse was like 19 years old. XD At one point the boarder did talk about the mare slowing down a little, but it may have been just due the weather being very hot and the horse having still very thick coat. One of the lesson horses is also around that age and would be in full lesson use, if he hadn't injured his shoulder weirdly during the winter, so now he's in little lighter work.
@Mr.Milo: Funny part is this leaser person has owned at least 2-3 horses in past(all Icelandics, except the latest which was a young gypsy and fjord cross, who she figured out eventually wasn't horse for her) and once even kept horses on her own property I believe. She just can't seem to pick up new ways of doing things with horses and is kinda stuck with the thought that her lease horse used to be very timid around people and actually bit spooky when ridden(partly due being blind on one eye). Thus she babies him and lets him get away with things, at least on ground as I've never seen her riding the horse since she prefers trails as well. She also has habbit of feeding the horse dry bread from the saddle when she mounts and refuses to put a noseband on the horse, even when L has asked to do so... Despite all this, she does excersise the horse really well and he's probably in best shape he's been in years. She also does random usefull building projects, cleans in the stable, does chores and cleans paddocks(though 99% of time only her lease horse's paddock). So I'm not sure how I feel about her. Sometimes she's overly fussy and sometimes it's nice to have her around as things get done. >_<
Running on open field is something for sure. We've used our pasture sometimes for that in early fall and winter. If it wasn't cut into about half lenght vise with fencing, you could get pretty darn long straight slightly uphill...
@Kestrell: Congrats! Pictures please when you can.
@Banishment.: If you could get a full body picture with all of the legs also showing it would be little better to play the guessing game from. c; That being said it's a guessing game. My guess would be at least part TB, maybe crossed with QH.
@June Bug: I feel you with the paddock puzzle... We have too many horses that can't be paddocked with just any other horse(if any really) and some horses can't be paddocked next to each other, or in certain paddock due them having too many bugs... It's a nightmare, especially when you'd really need more paddocks to solve it. -___-
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Feykja's belly problems somehow magically went totally away overnight, which ment she and Heta got to finally go out to the pasture and will most likely now stay there 24/7 unless the weather goes really bad.
The weather today was really perfect for the horses as it was really really windy, but not too cold especially when the sun was out and it didn't wind momentarily. So all the summer itch horses were super calm and relax with very minimal tail swishing. ^^ We also added most of the other mares in with Heta and Feykja little by little and tomorrow we are turning out last 4 of the mares, 3 of which we figured would be most problematic due their strong natures and one of the 3 being totally new to some of the herd. Today all went in pretty nicely and only run couple rounds trying to get close to Feykja, but Heta kept her couple meters from everyone. When I went to check them out little later, she even pinned her ears at me when Feykja came to me and I scratched her. Then pretty quick she seemed to realise it was just me, relaxed and went back to eating and let me play with Feykja. I guess I just got promoted as a babysitter for Heta. XD
The boarder I spoke of in my last post. Things moved pretty quick and now the horse is leaving tomorrow. She let L know either late last night or today morning. The horse also has a leaser, who has been leasing him for years and generally has been around for even longer. She's pretty attached to the horse(dare I say even more than the owner sometimes), so it was pretty big shock for her when the owner told her yesterday apparently that the horse was moving on Sunday. Saddest part is that the owner said she didn't need the leaser to ride the horse anymore at the new place, which would indicate she found someone else to ride him... This I find extremely rude and incosiderate as the leaser has been nothing but good for the horse and is very fond of him, plus she would have been willing to ride him in the new place as well. L is extremely pissed about this as well and due that she won't be around when they come pick up the horse tomorrow as she probably wouldn't be able to be civil with the boarder and just generally she just wants this over with.
