Sunshine........a Little Flooding.....and More Attitude

Part 1

The weather here has either been absolutely clear, beautiful and warm or it's been record amounts of rainfall. We've had so much standing water on our place that even when the sun does come out there is still water everwhere. The sun doesn't stick around long enough for the water to have time to dissapate and so the next time the rains come the water rises higher and higher.

Despite clear blue skies, the creek is well over it's banks and we have flooding in the one barn aisle. The stalls are mostly dry. It's the walkway that's under water. There was a low spot in one stall that had accumulated some water. Lindsay fixed the low spot so that stall is now dry too.

Towards the end of this day most of the water had dried up in the barn aisle. The weatherman predicts sun for two more days making it a possibility the creek might actually subside and the puddles of standing water might dry up too. It really is being a very odd November for us.

I can use the amount of water on my property as a guage for how much water there will be in the arena at the park. Because the arena is built on the low end of the park, it is the very last part of the park to dry out. If there is standing water still here, the arenas at the park are unuseable. That meant if I wanted to ride I needed to do it here.

After my experience trying to ride Storm here the other day, I decided if I wanted to ride him, I should probably deal with him first. I wanted to be clear and fresh just in case the Arabian horse gave me any trouble.

I had already put Rhet out in the back field and Suede in the front paddock before I got Storm. There had been two stallions out on Sunday too so I didn't really think that should make any difference. However, neither Andy nor Patriot seemed to care about Storm's presence. That's wasn't the case today with Rhet.

The minute Storm and I emerged from the barn, Rhet began running the fenceline and calling to him. Rhet at two is still a baby about other studs. To him it was more visiting a new friend, for Storm it's always about girls. Rhet wanted to play and Storm was looking for an opportunity to eliminate the competition.

I tied Storm to the horse trailer to groom him and tack him up. From the minute I snapped the fastener on his halter transferring possession of the horse from me to being tied, Storm began swining around trying to get the best look at his foe. Shaking his head and pawing the ground Storm's entire focus was on Rhet.

Rhet ran up to the fenceline as close to the horse trailer as he could get. The colt was talking and dancing and bucking, doing the happy dance, all excited about the proximity to Storm.

Storm took Rhet's behavior as an invitation to challenge the colt, puffing up huge and screaming a deafening scream to which I promptly replied with a smack on his rump with my hand. Storm knew better than to mess with me on the ground. The minute I thumped him the horse deflated but he still tried to keep his eye on Rhet.

Considering the circumstances Storm was actually pretty good about getting groomed and tacked up. Even when I took the halter off to put his bridle on, the horse cooperated. I'd been just a little worried he might try to take advantage of the situation to escape but he only thought about it. A verbal warning from me, he again flattened out his demeanor and stood quietly.

To be continued................

A Little Attitude Adjustment

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