I've been SO bad about updating.
Here's what's been going on:
- Boo wears a bridle, but is a complete butthead about lowering his head to be bridled and unbridled, so we spend a lot of time just working on putting the crownpiece over his ears and taking it off again
- He wears a surcingle and pad like it's no big thing
- We got one long-lining session in before the rain was upon us, and it was great... can't wait to do more....
- Feet continue to improve, though of course after a month of mud they look HORRIBLE right now. But they look normal-horrible. Yay! Nice thick strong walls and soles and bouncy frogs.

Probably the best and most fun development is that he's blossomed into an actual Thoroughbred. This is also the most challenging, because he's huge and I'm not; and it translates into him wanting to run, run, run all the time. So now he gets turned out in the arena before we try to do any kind of useful work, and he gallops and slides and bucks for a good 10-15 minutes to get the yeehaws out.

The other wonderful, exciting thing is that he's become sound and surefooted enough that I've begun turning him out on our hill pastures. These are a little scary, since they're steep in spots and full of rocks and ground squirrel holes, but most of the horses have been going out in them for years and no one's ever come in with worse than a scrape. He goes out in boots, and has been learning how to balance on hills while grazing and generally has been having a great time. Of course now that the green grass is coming up, I'll be cutting out even the tiny double handful of complete feed that gets mixed with his rice bran and supplements, because he just doesn't need that much good stuff!

Can't wait to see what I have when the winter fuzz sheds out and spring is here!