Post-storm horses

Or perhaps first-snow-of-year horses.

Very in-my-face per his usual

Not per her usual....

I love, love, love her brown highlights around her nose/eyes

Angry mare-face tells Griffin what's up!

Its GROWING! 2x as long as it was back at our first parade.

She does this a lot around me...

Ear rubs, her favorite

 Q has some odd swelling on the back of her right hind fetlock. At first inspection, she was tender, but then she was tender to me touching all of her legs/feet. After a quick run around in the round pen and seeing that her gait wasn't boggled at all, I re-assessed her legs and she stood solidly and let me touch them all without jerking them up and around. She seems to have trust issues when tied, but when left at liberty within a round pen she's much happier to let me assess her. Perhaps knowing she could escape it at any moment eases her? Its something we need to work on at any rate - no matter how well she ground ties in the pen, she needs to let me assess when she's tied, too, without acting a fool.

Griffin on the other hand... Well, better you watch than me write:

And then in the round pen:

: : : : :

Q is full of herself. Absolutely full of herself. This cold weather makes her go gah-gah. I can't wait to dig myself out from under this proverbial pile of homework and harness her energy into something new and exciting. With snow on the ground, wet sloppy conditions, and hunters in the woods I have plans to teach  both horses to self-load onto the trailer. The gravel drive shouldn't get too messy and hunters aren't around there!

IF it decides to dry out at all I have plans to put her through several little gymnastic routines and try and get her jumping a little more structured and balanced. She's got skill and power, but she's all over the place! Likely though, a lot of our US work will be on the rail trail until hunters vacate the woods! I do have some plans to do more groundwork with her, too, polish up our relationship with one another through various liberty exercises.

Griffin has a lot coming to him this winter. He's already got some foundation for liberty work, so I'd really like to improve upon that and see how far we can go with it. I need him to be my leader for duo liberty work with Q. And depending upon many factors perhaps he shall be sat upon this winter, too. Time shall tell!