Tuff Goes On A Field Trip

I had so much fun with little Tuff Tuff Saturday! I went out to FINALLY check on him (its been over 2 weeks I bet, so easy when you know that they are havin fun eating all day and know they have all they need, to just leave them be! (especially when they are waaaay on over in another pasture, sucha lazy butt!)

Well that came up and bit me though. I got out there to the in laws, expecting to have to bike all the way through the close pasture on into the other where they are SUPPOSED to be. Well they were right there in the pasture just behind the in laws. The one with NO GRASS. I was like GRRR, because at least a week ago or more I noticed them out there and asked the little BIL WHY they were not out on grass. He said the fence needed fixing. I was like, well you know there is NOTHING to eat out here?? He's like theres a bit of grass, don't worry, we are going to fix the fence. I was like, okay, I got pretty annoyed with him, so I figured it'd get done, you know?? I even told him to call Lee and he would help, seeing as his horse is out there.

Fast forward to Saturday, and they are STILL IN THERE!!!!! And my poor horse looks like an ethiopian nag!! Okay, not that bad, but NOT good either. He is really ribby and it shows in his neck and top line as well. I was NOT HAPPY! When I saw Lee's dad come out I basically had a fit at him wondering why the fence hadn't gotten fixed so they could get out there. I mean, they could have even moved them to the FAR far pasture because Daisy and Rusty are not in there either. BUT NOOOO, they didnt! And so all our horses have been starving! The other two are ribby as well. -_- I mean, there is a LITTLE bit of something in there to eat, but not much.

Unbelievable. I mean, I guess its sorta our fault we have trusted them to be sensible and not checked on him, but geeze, I didn't realize that was going to be an issue. I mean, all they have to do is LOOK at them, and the lot they are in, and know something is wrong!!! >:(

Sigh. anyway. Enough of that. So if you see Tuff looking a little thin in the pics/video, that is why! Believe me, Lee and I are getting out there TODAY to fix that bloody fence! Or at least move them to the other half. :grumble grumble:

So after I got over that I brushed him down and combed his mane. (and had to whip him in fast circles 2 or 3 times to get him to be still when I say whoa! I was walking away from him trying to get pics and he kept wanting to follow or step forward)

And then we walked over to see what the dad in law was doing (fixing his truck) and tried to find some scary stuff to check out. Well I found lots of stuff I THOUGHT a horse would think is scary, but not him! Coke cans, tarps, plastic bags, etc. The tarp did startle him a bit when I flapped it up real high, but that was it, good boy!

It was SO HOT out. I tried to stay in the shade as much as possible, and brought my little 'necklace' fan with me, so you'll hear it buzzing in the videos, lol.

After that I walked him over to some grass and let him graze awhile, poor baby. He was SO HAPPY that he started grazing backwards! It was hilarious! He would grab grass, step back, grab some more, step back a few more steps. He has always been inclined to back up. I wonder if we will have problems with that when he gets ridden the first few times. I got it on video, check it out (yes the gnats were TERRIBLE!):



So to get him to backing up I finally braced my lead rope hand against my leg and he couldn't go anywhere but forward, so he finally quit stepping back, lol. Then I left him there because I needed to find out what time it was from the FIL. (I knew he wasn't going anywhere!) He didn't really know...so I started thinking, I really need my cell phone... (we were going to a baseball game that night and my husband was working, and had to call me to tell me when he was going home so we could meet up with my bro and his wife, etc)

So then I thought, hey, great opportunity to take Tuff on down the road! I've always wanted to just walk around with him, and see how he would do without other horses. Well he did WONDERFUL, even better then I could have expected! It made me feel good, because he just plodded along behind me like I was the lead horse and he was good with me. :)















Here's a goofy video of us doing that (goofy as in, I AM goofy -_-):



So I let him graze in the front yard and got my phone from inside, tried to get the dog to drink some water, and then persuade him he wanted to stay in his room (which he didn't) and then came on out. He was perfectly content to graze in the yard all day I think, lol. I was burning up though, so I tugged his head up and headed back. We did a bit of trotting back, that I got on vid (I was video happy that day, I know! Yes, I am jogging backwards in flip flops, not smart, I know)



And then walked a bit, then trotted nearly all the way back, he did so good! Didn't break once! He is also very good at traversing bad terrain. We went through a few ditches filled with big rocks inside and on the landing and he did awesome, slow and careful. He is always slow going down hills too. I LOVE that, so not fun to ride a horse who likes to race down AND up hills. I think he is going to be a super trail horse. It helps a lot that they are pastures all day with lots of natural obstacles. (side note: I heard the inlaws are saving up for a round pen, BONUS!! but shhh, you didn't hear that from me!)

Anywho, we walked around a bit more then I decided to hose him off a bit. This is only the 2nd time he has been hosed all over and he did SUPER, he didn't move a bit after the initial wetting, I think he was quite enjoying himself, haha. Then I led him to a diff part of the yard and let him graze some more while I sweat scrapped him, then put him up after a little longer.



On a side note, I have a suspicion Tuff is turning into a flea bitten grey! I KNOW, lol. I meant to get a close up of his coat, but forgot. Its like his little chestnut hairs from when he was born are separating and turning into the flea bitten grey pattern in certain spots...I'm not sure yet, but I will let yall know! Its hard to tell with the glare from the sun of his light coat in the pictures...

So there ya have it! Our fun little afternoon. Until later!