Bruno in a full gallop-all four feet off the ground. Shortly before he went for surgery. I love Mick and Feather as the spectators lining the fence.

And another old Bruno picture from December 2012. I can’t wait to get him back whole.

Bruno,I am happy to report is so much better!  It is day 80 from surgery, and day five since he tried to cut off his hoof.  Will he every run freely and joyfully as he does above?

The swelling in his hoof is greatly reduced-like it is almost normal (except for the line of stitches, you would barely notice!).  He is still not eating as well as he should but that could be from the medications upsetting his stomach.  Since he is standing in his stall, it is difficult to assess how lame he is on that foot but I guess we will find out Monday when he heads off to A&M.

Feather in her imitation of a bird soaring over the warm-up fence today.

Feather, Lauren  and Megan were off to the horse show yesterday.  The usual schooling yesterday and then horseshow riding today.  In a departure from the usual strategy, Dev  had them in the jumper ring today.  Not so they could run fast and jump high but so the mare gets to see and accept the more intimidating, less inviting jumps of the jumper arena.  Hunter jumps slope up gradually in front and often covered with forest-like, hunt-type props of hay bales, brush and natural colors.

Mickey and Lauren gliding over a “hunter” jump. Notice only colors found in nature and natural props.

Although they may be the same size as a jump in the jumper arena, the horse is more likely to want to jump over (as opposed to running from) the hunter jumps.  In the jumper ring, nothing is outside the limits of the imagination.  I have seen all colors from hot pink to loud purples, on jumps that invoke butterflies, fish or space ships.

Really, jumping through Bud Bottles? (This is Not Feather and Lauren!)

Or giant flower pots-not for the faint of heart.

So, Feather won’t be facing anything this dramatic any time soon, but does need to get used to the differences between rings so that it is all part of her training.  One day when the giant beer bottles show up to be jumped she will eagerly jump right over.

We were the first class of the day so we weren’t at the show too long.  Feather jumped everything clear in the big arena.  Dev kept saying how brave she was and I concur.  It is a huge arena with lots of new noises, more horses than she has ever seen in any one place and quite a few spectators. We are not hoping really for any ribbons, because to accomplish that Lauren would have to push the speed and the mare is not ready for the combination of fast and high(plus, Dev would kill Lauren and that would be messy!).  Dev wants a nice steady ride through the jumper jumps.  We had a good first round, Feather jumped everything but was two seconds too slow to make it on to the jump off.  In the second round, in spite of my feeling, this was no big deal, Lauren made an amateur’s mistake of not crossing the timer on her way into the round and they were stopped after two jumps.  The final round was their best, but Feather pulled a rail down on a combination jump and it knocked them out of the ribbons.  Still my frightened little mare acted as if she had done this all a million times. She jumped everything Lauren asked her to jump.  Kathy sent Lauren a note to encourage her and it said, “I bet no one in that ring, trained and brought along their own horse as you have done with Feather.  Also, this is literally the fourth time she has shown ever.  So no matter how you do, you deserve a blue ribbon!”

It was a very positive experience and the mare just keeps on stepping up to new heights each round.  I will have some show pictures tomorrow, my camera has finally quit,

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I hired a part-time sitter to stay with mom during some of the day time hours just to keep her company and help her with her daily needs.  Of course, mom does not like the sitter and I am not sure we have made any progress on getting her to accept her presence there.  I will need to make a decision this weekend on if this is a good idea or not.

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Bruno, Lauren and Megan are off to A&M Monday and then the girls will be going to Galveston for a couple of days of spring break.  I was hoping to have Bruno stay at Dev’s while we get some work done on the barn but the parts for the barn are not in so Bruno will be at home with me.  I am a little concerned about how I will integrate the feeding, watering, cleaning and caring for the four horses while Lauren is gone into my already booked tight schedule.  I talked to my friend Linda and she has agreed to stop by on her short lunch hour to give Bruno his lunchtime feed.  I am so appreciative of that as I am gone over 12 hours and the big guy needs some food and water to break up the day.  Horses in the wild graze almost 20 hours a day so standing in a stall with no food for 12 hours is not optimal.

I will be dragging by the time the girls get home and Bruno’s stall may not meet its current cleanliness standard but we will get by.

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Oh, I will be reporting in from Kona’s first obedience class Monday night.

Thanks for riding along!