Guy McLean says he likes to watch his horses in the field so he gets an idea of what they are capable of doing, then he wants to bring that out when he works with them.
Well, he should be here at 10 o'clock and 5 o'clock every day. He'd see some pretty interesting athletic feats from Jake, who's nearly two years old now, and young Spike, coming in at 11 months old. Run, buck, spin, rear, repeat. Chase the gray pony, stop. Yesterday I saw something that I'd never seen before though: Spike did a 360-degree reining spin that would have made Stacey Westfall's jaw drop. His topline never moved and it was lightning fast, done because he couldn't decide which way to run next I suppose. So there's a horse that's bred to show halter and trail, but is that selling him short? We'll see.
Meanwhile Jake has learned to climb into the cement hay manger, a leftover from the days when the old barn was a cattle shed, and he'll get up on the mounting block with me when I'm getting on Cody to take the boys out for a ride. I don't discourage him since i want him to do obstacles as a trail horse. That boy just doesn't say no to anything and I don't want to say no to him. He's due to start in the round pen and trailer training as well, with one of the adults as a buddy.
They've both had their issues with growth, with the odd bit of swelling in their legs and a few growing pains. Both are on just hay and Gro'N Win, a ration balancer from Buckeye Nutrition. Jake won't eat his unless there's a handful of oats on it, like the marshmallows in Lucky Charms, and Spike eats his carrots first although he's a bit of a garbage can for food. They're nearly the same height, within two inches, but Jake has 200 pounds on Spike yet.