What do you with a problem like my mustang?

Yesterday I took advantage of a break in the showers (I thought) to ride Lance. But by the time I had him groomed and saddled, it was raining again. So I left him tied (with halter and lead rope!) in his paddock and watched sheep for awhile (I had two pregnant ewes who are toying with me). When the shower stopped and I returned to Lance, I found this:

He had just enough leeway in his lead to reach around and unbuckle half his girth!

At 7:00 p.m. I took a bottle down for my bottle lamb, along with some towels in case one of the ewes had given birth. Since there were no new lambs, I decided to leave the towels in the tack room. I walked into the barn, and Lance's stall door was ajar! I found him in the upper pasture calmly grazing, the turkey. Fortunately he didn't play any catch-me-if-you-can games, and I led him back to his stall.

Obviously, bolt snaps (above) are no longer a challenge for my nimble-lipped Lance, so I switched things around and put a threaded quick link through his stall latch. If that doesn't work, I think a combination lock will be our next step….

Treatment #2

Rick finally made time to treat Lance's suspensory with shock wave a second time today. (Muddy leg courtesy of Houdini hijinks.) Looks like the weather will cooperate for another 15-minute walk, too.

P.S. I can take a hint

Monday? When Lance destroyed his bridle? I had my entry to the Mother's Day Heart of the Valley Show II in an envelope and ready to mail later that afternoon. I didn't mail it….

This is why we keep spares

That beautiful bridle on Lance in the previous post?

Read all about the Keystone Cops routine that caused the casualty on my farm blog. Unfortunately, the one good leather repair(wo)man in the area quit that business several years ago, and I'm not confident that the cheekpiece and rein could be made to look show-worthy again anyway. Fortunately, I DO have other bridles. I decided to try Russell's bridle on Lance again, even though it was too big for him a year and a half ago.

Ta-da! His head has grown some since I got him – even if it IS a knucklehead!

Because I can

Despite being FULL of mischief while I led him around, Lance acted like the laziest horse in the dude string once I got in the saddle – which was fine. He had nothing to prove, nothing to work on; I just wanted the saddle time Rick said we could have. Of course, I thought about my position; no point in getting sloppy. Lance had a nice, foamy mouth at the end, too. :-)