Elk, Day 2

So Elk arrived (to Shar's property, not mine--neither the HOA nor the horse would appreciate me keeping a horse in my suburban backyard) on Sunday.  Monday, I went out there after work.  We're at the time of year where there isn't much daylight after work (and soon we'll be at the point where there's none, unfortunately), so I unloaded the feed I'd bought, had a quick chat with Shar, and went out to fetch Elk.  At this point, Shar's boyfriend/partner/notsurehowshereferstohim, R, arrived home and mentioned that Elk had already caused property damage.  We went out to check out the damage to both property and equine, and found that she'd somehow stuck her foot through the wire grid fencing, quite a ways outside the fenceline, and she had a small scrape on her hind leg.  We're not sure whether she stuck a front leg through the fence (makes more sense considering how far through the fence it got) and somehow also cut her back leg, or whether she stuck the back leg through the fence in some feat of agility and flexibility, but neither were majorly or permanently damaged.

(Update:  Shar and R think she actually did it while rolling.  Sounds plausible.)

I got her out, groomed her, checked her leg for any heat or swelling (nope), checked the rest of her limbs and body for any other damage (also nope), so I went ahead and saddled her up.  We went to the round pen and I worked her a bit, first alone then with R watching.  She did beautifully.  So I went ahead and got on, and again, perfect.  Well, not PERFECT.  She's young, relatively green, and HUGE, so she doesn't know much about bending or balancing and therefore doesn't turn on a dime.  She's also reluctant to trot, but this is a pretty small round pen, so I think she'll do much better when we hit the trails, and we have all winter to work on bending and such in the arena when we can't get on the trails.

No photos, but it was a successful second day and second ride.  Unfortunately, due to other commitments (running group, humane society, my kitty needing meds I have to pick up from the vet), I can't make it out there again until Friday.

Speaking of which, I haven't yet mentioned all of this to Nathan yet (which is why I'm delaying posting these blog posts), because I plan to surprise him with a trip out to Shar's on Friday to meet Elk.  If she does well with me riding her (and we'll probably "graduate" to the arena rather than the round pen), I'll probably put Nathan on her, too.  Then I'm hoping to do a trail ride with Shar on her steady Eddy on the weekend.  Woo!