Czech Arrives

I was lucky to be able to meet-up with some friends I hadn't been able to see often since our move, to break-up the 4 hour round-trip to go and pick-up Czech (Toad) with all of my kids in tow on summer break.

They had a good 2 hours of running on the playground and I got to relax a little with my friends, much needed after the trip down where semis made my empty trailer start to weave behind my truck on the interstate, followed by a long stretch of 2 lane with construction cones pushing traffic right on top of each other.

After wearing out the small people, we headed over to the farm where Czech loaded perfectly as Iva kissed him goodbye and we traveled home. All of my horses were in the barn for the heat of the day, Czech got to meet Bandon while I took his standing wraps off.

Later that night for turnout, Czech enjoyed stretching his legs in big gallops across the pasture. Spotlight didn't give him much of a glance as he went to his favorite job of grazing. Bandon, on the other hand, was fit to be tied.

He didn't know what he should do about this new boy on his property. Usually Bandon is pretty laid back and not a higher-ranking horse. Something about Czech made him feel bold though and he spent a good bit of time defending the Whisper's paddock line from the intruder.

Whisper was indifferent in her separate paddock space. She's been on solo turnout since the beginning of last week when one of her kicks tore a deep hole in Bandon's shoulder about 5 days before our show attempt. The following day the horses were on day turnout with mild weather and I was able to watch, Whisper pursued Bandon across the pasture, running and kicking him off and on all day. As she came up lame and Bandon was wounded, Chris and I decided to just make our lives easier and let her have an acre that was all hers.

This morning the boys had worked out most of their differences. Bandon still felt like he needed to keep himself between Spot and Czech. I'm sure that will work itself out.

I worked in the barn last night into the late summer darkness hauling fresh water to Whisper's paddock, stall waters, pasture trough cleaning, filling all the stalls with fresh shavings, stripping and cleaning the trailer, and unpacking Czech. Tonight I'm hoping to get to know him a little better with some grooming. I did sneak in his stall with a tape this morning and he is 17.1 hh, making Bandon's 16 hh look like a QH.