The Lakes at Millenium Stables!

My barn manager has recently dubbed the barn "The Lakes at Millennium Stables." All but one psture is completely underwater, and not by just a few inches. A few have over two feet of standing water sitting in them; one, which had a bone-dry ditch running through it, is not only under water but has filled the ditch and has a PVC pipe from someone's plumbing sitting in it. Needless to say, they are not being used.

We pulled up to the barn today and were greeted by the daytime-pastured girls who were grazing in the area around the fenced in barn/driveway. The stable itself had been blocked off so the horses couldn't get in.

Anyways, I hopped over the barricade, unlocked the tack room, and got Berky out of his stall. He was not as filthy as I was expecting, although he had stocked up in his pasterns from not being exercised in a week. (It went away after I hand walked him a little.) I had made him cookies, so I used those for our stretches then tied him up. He had a huge knot on the other side of his neck and near his shoulder.. I have no idea what he does to himself. I spent a good forty-five minutes massaging them out while he dozed. Berkshire is the most attention-loving horse I have ever met- when I would take a break from rubbing him, he'd stare after me, and when I'd lean against the post and talk to Maddie (who had Jack tied next to me while the saddle fitter checked him over), he'd all but put his head in my lap.

Obviously, it was too wet to do much of anything strenuous. We went out to the only half-flooded dressage arena with another rider and worked on 20m circles on the bit and long and low for all of fifteen minutes. The mares started coming in over the low fence and one of the other boarders tried to shoo them away with a longe whip (a blatantly bad idea, but at this point, it was either get rid of the mares or risk some chomps). Berky didn't react well to this, but everyone lived to tell about it. They tried to get in again, so I just dismounted and called it a ride.

We hadn't cooled out, so we went out the gate and I led him on a walk down the muddy road. He took it pretty well until we had the combined effect of mailboxes and barking dogs, at which point I got him to stand still and listen and turned back for the barn. I was walking him through the shallow puddles and came across one that looked a few inches deep. It came up to my knees. We sloshed through it anyways.

De-tack, more stretches, and then put him back in. Not the most eventful day in the world, but sometimes it's nice to be lazy.