Justin fix

A riding buddy called this am to see if I still wanted to ride today and at first I had a small pity party about yesterday but decided nope...not going to happen. I needed to take my horse Justin out for some great horse therapy. He is my love. I have loved all my horses over the many years I have had them but there have been only 2 that I had a truly deep wonderful bond with and Justin is one of them. I got him when he was 3 years old and he just turned 15 this year. He is a registered appaloosa. I know, I know he looks like a paint but really he is a red roan appaloosa with liver spots. See if you can find the 3 liver spots lol. These pictures where taken after our ride this morning. He and I are out of shape and yes that is sweat from the ride in the arena not the trailer ride which was only 10 minutes long. The first one he is listening to his buddies from the back pasture and the second he is pawing to show his impatience. So he is like his mom what can I say.

The reason I call this my Justin fix is because I can count on him to be an honest ride and after yesterday I needed that pure honesty that you get from your animals. He is the type that I usually just throw the halter on and ride bareback in the pasture whenever I have negative thoughts. After the ride this morning I feel much better and will think about the antiques another day.

We got Justin from someone years back. My DH says I bought him to get him away from that owner. He is correct. When I went out to ride Justin he could barely walk. The good ole boy was a roper who was "training" him on stopping quickly. I do not have anything against ropers just ropers who are macho against the horse. Justin's knees were swollen from over doing the quick stops and to top it off the good ole boy just learned how to trim hooves and had poor Justin sooo short. So in reality, I bought a lame horse. I took a gamble. Sure enough his knees went back to normal size and his feet grew out nicely. The problem with the knees was that he were not quit closed. Most close around 2 years or so but I guess Justin was a late bloomer and the previous owner was riding too hard. He will probably have problems later...I hope much later. He does have one bad quirk but they all do and I have chosen to live with his. He "moves" quite largely to the side if someone or something approaches him from the side or head on. Mostly the right side which is the side the ropes are thrown from when roping. He gives you lots of signs so I just move with him. I love him even with that quirk and just have to be an active rider. Anyway, he is a cuddler too. He is reassuring Cyrus here on his first day to our barn. He loves on all the new babies around here...be it goats or chickens or cats or actual kids!

After his rinse and a roll in the dirt here is what his favorite thing is...eating!

That is it about the horse therapy but this day continues to a wonderful day. An old friend that I used to work with was in Alvin and stopped by for a visit and when we went to the barn Ms. Bea (one of my banties) hatched out 4 new chicks!

I love my barn, my animals, my old and new friends...life is good.

That's all for today...come back soon.

Oh and Sly says "I see you! and will talk to you later"