The truth about colic

Colic is pretty much the biggest fear of all horse owners, because it's so common with horses, as well as because it's so often fatal.  So I was interested to see this article over the weekend:

5 Myths About Colic You May Still Believe

There are a lot of myths about colic, probably because everyone is so afraid of it happening to their horses.
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Barn work

I decided to take on some barn work to cancel out some of my board, starting next month.  My morning family from spring, the preschooler I was taking to and from school in the mornings, will no longer need me, and that will represent a significant pay cut for me.

Luckily for me, the boarder who has been cleaning buckets and stalls decided to quit in August, so I'm taking over her job.  It should only be a couple hours a day, but it will reduce my board by a significant amount, especially helpful since I have two horses.

I've worked at a barn I boarded at in exchange for board once before.
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Ride no. 3 for the summer horsemanship challenge

On Thursday, I got a third ride in for the summer horsemanship challenge, adding another two hours of total horse time.  I am hopelessly behind on the challenge, since I'm so ridiculously busy in the summer -- I just have no extra time to devote to riding.   I'm going to continue participating when I can, though, despite knowing there's no way I'll catch up.  (The goal is 25 rides and 40 hours of horse time.)

I chose to ride with a saddle on Thursday.  The horsemanship challenge requires that four of your 25 rides be bareback, so I've ridden bareback twice already, but I noticed the second time that there were some things going on that I thought I could fix more easily with a saddle.
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Rain, rain, go away

As I mentioned in an earlier post, it's been unusually rainy in Denver so far this spring and summer.  And apparently, it's not going to end anytime soon.  Since we're entering the time of year when we usually get afternoon thunderstorms most days, they're predicting the unusually wet weather to continue until probably September.

Yeah, Colorado's Been Wet Lately -- And Here Comes Monsoon Season

As you can imagine, I'm not particularly thrilled to hear this.
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Two bareback rides

I'm quite behind in the summer horsemanship challenge -- even though we've had some dry weather since all that rain I blogged about, I've been too busy to do much.  I accomplished two of the bareback rides and about four hours of horsey time, though -- one ride last Thursday, and another last night.

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Off to a rough (and wet) start

I have to admit I haven't gotten out to the barn once since joining the summer horsemanship challenge over the weekend.  People are posting picture of their rides and training sessions left and right, and I still haven't made it out to the barn at all.

There are a couple of reasons for that: weather, and just plain me being busy (as usual).
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Horseback riding is good for you!

One of the reasons why I really should get out to the barn more often -- besides the fact that I miss my horses -- is that I'm missing the exercise.  I've gained weight in the past year, only about five or ten pounds, but I think it's at least partly because I'm less active now that I haven't been riding as much.  (It's also partly because with some changes in my life, I have been eating out and eating convenience foods more often, although hopefully that's at an end now that I have my own place.)

Anyway, it's no surprise to any of us horse people that this study found horseback riding to be extremely good exercise.
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Horse happenings

I just realized it's been over a month since I posted last!  I actually was riding more often for part of that, but then I moved and ended up spending more time on unpacking and organizing and similar stuff.

I have a few exciting horse happenings to report, though.
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