The sudden change from perfect summer weather to a deluge today made me realise that it’s time we started riding Solo outside the roundpen. The roundpen was unusable today and will be flooded for the next week at least. Solo’s ponying privileges are also at an all time low. Last week he bucked while on the lead and kicked another horse. He is not Mr. Popularity to take hacking at the moment.
To get to our indoor arena he is going to have to hack up and down a fairly steep hill all winter. Our home barn is a ten minute walk from our indoor arena, downhill going, uphill coming back. Theoretically this is a really good thing, making sure our horses have a light hack before and after work, with a nice stretching hill involved. In actual fact, it’s very hard to remember how beneficial it is, when it is either raining or minus 20 degrees outside. We have another barn closer to the arena but we keep it for people who can only ride their horses at night, it’s not really too bad to hack up and down in the daytime but it would be really tough at night.
He is also having to spend the night indoors. Neither he nor his turnout buddy, Waldo, could understand why we were not getting on with turnout chores. They were both quite indignant when all continued to walk past their stalls, despite the giraffe length necks that were waving at us over the half doors.
The indoor environment is much busier than his outdoor living quarters which are tucked away in a sheltered and quiet set of paddocks. His stall inside however, is right in the centre of the grooming/farrier/vetwork area, and across from the door to the tack room. This should keep him entertained as his time indoors increases with the approach of Winter.
