Braiding Practice

I have not been posting much lately. We've been so busy and I have not been taking pictures of anything, not even Thanksgiving! We were having so much fun eating, watching movies, playing games, and playing Wii that getting the camera out completely slipped my mind.

On the horse front, Jack has been off with a splint for the last week! I was brushing him last week for my lesson on Monday and noticed a huge bump on the inside of his right hind canon bone. He did not want me to touch it, and as soon as Anne ran her hand over it, she said it was definitely a splint. No riding for Jack! Fortunately it will get better, but it is just a waiting game.

Yesterday, while icing Jack's leg, I practiced my braiding. I actually love to braid, even though lots of people think it is boring. I had watched a video on YouTube (here)where a girl showed her method for doing button braids. I wanted to try it since it was different than the way I do regular hunter braids. It was so easy and fast! I usually do at least twenty hunter braids, but I only had to do ten button braids!

Here's me and Jack modeling the new braids. He looks annoyed here because I'm holding up his head and preventing him from eating. He's starving, can't you tell?

Here's a close up with Jack happily pigging out. I will definitely braid like this again. It didn't even matter that his mane was not thinned out very well. And I have been thinking he needs his mane shortened, but it was actually the perfect length.

I didn't bother French braiding his forelock, although I like doing that, too! Jack was happy to eat the long grass around the edges of the arena while I watched the Sunday jump lesson. Too bad we couldn't participate, but I am really glad I finally had time to try the new braids!

Fortunately I still had a horse to ride last week. My friend Stacy was in Europe with her husband, so I got to exercise her Thoroughbred, Amon. I wish I had a picture to post of me riding him. We had fun together. He is so different than Jack, always wanting to go faster, and very narrow to sit on. He really loves Stacy the best, but he warmed up to me after all the carrots and horse cookies I fed him over the last two weeks!