The Future Pasture and Buddy

It's Labor Day weekend, and today (Saturday), Misty and I worked a bit this afternoon picking up and piling up sticks and logs in what will someday be the horse pasture. This project started back in January when I decided to clear a few acres for pasture. I think the guys who did the clearing worked more on their machinery than on the property. It was May before they got what is cleared now - about three and a half acres - and the wood burned or hauled off. By then, it was too late in the spring to plant, so all summer I've been staring at what looks like a baren waste land. As it turns out, the burn piles were just scattered out, so now I am picking up the bigger pieces to try to burn them again. This fall my neighbor will disk the ground and I'll have the lime, fertilizer and seed spread. It won't be soon enough when I can finally get Buddy (my Tennessee Walker) over here. But there is so much yet to do before then... the pasture, a run-in shed, the fencing.

Buddy is the newest "member of the family" around here. I saw him at a field trial in Georgia last December, and fell in love with him. And I felt a bit sorry for him. The gentleman who owned him had just recently acquired him, but didn't seem at all comfortable with him. And I thought that he was a little bit too much fellow for Buddy, who is a lighter built horse. The headstall that he was using was way too big for Buddy, so Buddy kept getting his tongue over the bit. I bought a more appropriately sized bridle for him with a walking horse (leverage) bit. But he still manages to get his tongue over it, so I am researching what alternatives I should try. Boy, there are a lot of bits out there!