A cold week!

This week we have had two days where I actually decided that it was to cold to ride. It was -20 C on Wednesday and maybe -15 on Thursday. Normally I don't let weather conditions stop me. Last year my farrier thought I was totally out of my mind when he saw me cantering on a field in a snowstorm. They call them storms here but at home( Sweden) we just say that it is snowing. I still just think it is snowing as long as it doesn't get super windy at the same time. Anyway so normally heat, rain, wind or snow doesn't stop me but the cold did. Wednesday I spent 4 hours in our tackroom instead cleaning bridles and halters. Yep we have a lot of tack! And Thursday I spent dealing with our adoption and didn't even go to the barn.

Last week Norton came back home. He is a 4 year old paint/cob gelding that we sold to a lady in California in the begining of December. He was born on our property and he is the first generation of babies that I have trained since birth. Super nice boy. I have never really encountered any problems with him. We have had some small discussions over the years about who is in charge but never anything big and he has always just been a loving sweet boy. We did send him of to be broke to ride but mostly because he bucks really nice when you lounge him and I didn't feel like I had the time or energy to fix that so we sent him off to a guy that did a great job. I rode him for about 6 weeks before he left for Cali and he was a sweet ride. But for some reason he didn't click with the lady that bought him. She said that they always had an hour fight before she rode him. I honestly have no clue what happen. I never had any problem to get him to work.
Anyway he came back last Thursday. Came out of the trailer a little dehydrated due to an 8 hour long trip. He was happy to be home. His eyes was full of spunk and we let him out right away so he could move around. He showed us that he can still buck and then he dove in to the haypile.

So this week I brought him into our new indoor roundpen( i'll post some pics one of these days)and let him check it out. He didn't think much of it so on Tuesday I saddled him up. I wanted to find out where the lady had had her problems. I lounged him and he bucked but then he settled right down just as always before so I did some groundwork instead. Expecting to find some resistance, but nothing. Finally I got on him and did some bending and moving off of my leg and he was still fine. I walked and I trotted, snow was sliding from the roof and he behaved just perfect. I got off of him happy that he was still the same. No problems that I could find. My theory is that they must have had a cultureclash or personality clash. I feel sorry for the lady and Norton but I'm glad he is back home for now. Hopefully we can find another good home for him soon.

So many horses so many stories. Stay tuned for more:)
Daniela