Busy days

It's been a busy week for both me and the horses. Last week we took our last final exams for vet school (end of third year), and on Monday we jumped into orientation for our clinical year. Thankfully, I have a few days off right now and start out with a week on a fun and relatively low-key rotation (clinical pathology) before spending a few weeks at the lameness clinic I usually work at and then taking a week off for a vacation in Canada. Sounds busy, but I'll be able to stay at home until July 10th, which means I will have lots of time for the horses. After that, because I will be on call in the hospital, I will see the horses less and less. The farm is over an hour from school, and I have to be less than 20 minutes away while on call--which means I will be staying with friends in Corvallis on those special days.

That's okay--Chinook needs time to grow up, and really, so does Sage. But as you can see, he's already doing lots of growing!

Since I don't have any studying to do for the time being, and since Sage is such a good sport, I decided that we'd tack up and go for a little walk (just on foot) around the farm. She hasn't been saddled in months, and remember how she used to have some issues with the jingly English girth? Well, not a problem at all this week! She stood there like she'd been saddled every day for the last few months.

Chinook was a little curious about what the saddle was once we got up to the garden, but he really didn't seem to notice at first!


Then he spent a lot of time exploring the flowers to look for something he might be able to destroy...

And he locked in on that little garden ornament, promptly starting to chew on it.

But there was a lot to explore, including the rhododendrons, which he was fascinated by!


I let Sage know what a good girl she was several times, and especially when I untacked her. She seemed so happy about this that when I put them back in their pasture, she did several laps galloping and bucking happily--which is really quite unusual for her!


Trying to keep up, Chinook turned into a little cross-country jumper...clearing rocks in a single leap.


Soon he was in the lead, though, because he is the ultimate little race horse.


The next day after these photos were taken, a friend from class (Michelle) came over to the house for the evening after our orientation. We picked up some mane and tail de-tangler from the tack store on the way home, and then we set to work grooming Sage. Michelle attacked her mane and tail while I brushed (and tried to keep Chinook from biting either one of us in jest), and within a miraculous amount of time, Sage was looking amazing! Although it's hard to tell in the picture below, her tail is actually not somewhat tangled as it usually is.

Sage and Chinook were both really good. Sometimes they are nervous about meeting new people, but we just tied Sage up to the trailer and Michelle was able to work on her with no problems. In fact, Sage really likes being pampered and being the focus of attention.

Today, I needed to get some pictures of me and the two mustangs to send to some people, so my mom helped and took shots of us this evening. Although we got a nice "official" photo, she also took some pictures of what I've been working on with Chinook.

He leads:

He picks up his back feet really well (front feet are a little harder):

And he'll stretch out and give you the happy lip if you take a moment to scratch him (especially on his belly!):


And I guess I should include our posed shot...Sage doesn't look entirely amused, but do you know how hard it is to get these two coordinated and facing the right direction?! I am sure you can imagine!