Guess What I'm Becoming For February?

The world's oldest working student! I haven't written about our horse facility plans for awhile, but things are progressing. To help prepare me for running our facility I'm going to work for Sue Fraser, the woman Rogo and I are taking lessons from this winter. She is very well educated and experienced and this is a great opportunity to work with someone respected around the Province (and well beyond) for her horsemanship. I'll learn first hand how a busy barn operates for a full month's cycle. I'll also have lessons most week days if I can physically last through work and riding.

This is the part that scares me. After one lesson with Sue I'm ready to sleep by the time I get home. I think the first week at least will almost kill me be tough, but Sue knows I'm not twenty :) 

I'll live there through the week and possibly some weekends for the month of February (I have a pretty bedroom looking out at the barn) and immerse myself in this. It should make for some interesting posts if I'm not too tired to type.

Doug's been clearing land and the winter has been so open he has the site for the arena almost cleared and levelled. Here he is in his Christmas Carharts beside a big pine he recently cut up:

On a completely different topic, I went to the barn today to visit Rogo, and..... he was shockingly well. I forgot to take my phone into the stable and it was so icy I didn't go back for it, but I sure wish I had a picture to show you. The incision site looked so good it was almost miraculous compared to how it looked last week. It is completely healed, for the first time since the first surgery was done back in Oct. - no scabs, no weeping blood, no puss. It sort of healed after the first surgery but always looked kind of red and scabby and then another sarcoid grew out of it. Today it was nice pink flesh - one of the best sights I've ever seen in my life. I spontaneously started yelling YEAH! when I saw it and ran into the riding ring to tell everyone who was there, whether they wanted to know or not :) 

My final note is about Spirit, the school horse I've been riding while Rogo's been off. He is a five year old Hanoverian Quarter Horse cross (I think) and he is sweet and very fun to ride. He's better trained than Rogo although a year younger and I can focus more on my equitation when I'm riding him. I'm very remiss in not having a picture of him, but he's chestnut, cute as a button, 16+ hands and I'll post a picture soon. 

We work on trot serpentines, leg yield, 10 M circles, shoulder in and more basics. I'm learning to keep my knees off, but that is putting weight into the ball of my foot and I can't take that with my right foot. I see a trip to the chiropractor in my near future.

I hope to have more news on our horse facility soon. Things are starting to happen on that front.