Up Above The Ground Once More!

The New Year started out cold and bright at our place. The ground was super frozen and we had a decent dusting of snow that seemed to have no problem sticking around for a while.

Mercy was doing a good job handling the frozen ground with her barefeet for a while, but after a day or two I could tell she was really hurting. She wouldn't leave her stall or the covered, matted aisle way if she could help it. And if she did venture out, it was super slow and she gimped around the whole way to and from where ever it was that she was going. So she got to try on Starlett's old Easyboot Epics:

They fit quite nicely actually! It took a while for her to get use to the gaitors holding onto her pasterns, but it made getting around much easier for her once she figured it out! They were working so well for her, in fact, that we used them for our daily hand walks. She was striding out like I haven't seen her do in such a long time.

Yup, it's time to put her shoes back on. The farrier is coming out on Tuesday, so she will have front shoes back on in no time. That will make riding much easier now that I have the all clear to start riding her again! I can start at 5 minutes a day, just walking, and gradually increase to 30 minutes a day. At that point I can start to add a little jogging, but that is still a ways off.

Before I got this good news from the vet, my mom and I snuck in a quick bareback ride New Year's Day. It was a super short ride and the horses really enjoyed the freedom to move out faster than we wanted to walk when we had them in-hand.

Star took the lead for a while, at least until Mercy was done gawking...

Once Mercy had the horizon in sight, she tried multiple times to break into a jog. It was so hard not to let her go, but she needs to stay slow for now.

It was so much fun for everyone to get out and move out. I missed the view from above! Luckily, I don't have to stay down much longer.

If the rain and snow can hold off today, we have a real saddled-up ride planned. 20 minutes hand walking and 5 minutes in the saddle. Should be fun!