The Good With The Bad

This weather has been really tough. Yesterday the only thing the riding ring was good for was ice skating. I groomed JJ and did what I could in the barn to keep Mr. Beaver away from the fence for a little while anyway. Oh yea, JJ has turned into quite the little beaver, and his fence-nomming yesterday was impossible to ignore. Today, however, I noticed significantly less chewed fence. I started him on a supplement called QUITT on Sunday so maybe that's finally kicking in. Anyway, here's a visual of yesterday:

I could only skate in the ring while JJ snacked on the fence.

While significantly better than the ice of yesterday, the mud of today was also tough to deal with. Add that to the fact that JJ hasn't really left his playpen since Monday and you've got a bit of a mess on your hands. Er, well, I had to deal with the mess. JJ was pretty hyper on the lunge and kept falling in and breaking into a canter on one side. This can be infuriating on the best of days, but with the conditions of driving rain and knee-deep mud I was about ready to kill him. Of course cantering in a small circle meant slipping in the mud, at which point he would flip out and throw in a buck or whatever other BS he felt like pulling. I drove him on for probably close to 45 minutes because I was so pissed. The best move? No, probably not, but sometimes we humans do stupid things. At any rate he did finally relax into a relatively consistent trot, lower his head, and start chewing. Soaked, sore, and miserable, I decided to call it a day. Looking forward to a warm, sunny weekend (complete with parent-teacher conferences Saturday morning. Oh joy!).