FEH prep

Alright... we've got some work to do! FEH is around the corner.. August 25th. And I plan to have Danny make his debut :) So... the other day we worked on pulling his mane. He didn't care one bit. Then we tried doing some triangle work. Yeah.. for some reason we can only manage to trot nicely for two sides of the triangle. The third lap always seems to turn into a canter/run thing. And he won't quit grabbing the lead rope in his mouth... which makes it really hard to pull him back down to a trot. Doh! OH well. He's learning. We'll figure it out.

Then we jumped a very small little vertical again. He cracks me up with jumping!!! He walks up to it.. and jumps!!! He won't just walk over it. YAY!! Jumper pony!

And lately he's been BORED!!! I use the muck buckets as the extra water trough and he's found out that it makes a cool new toy! He's ruined three now... so I bought a heavy duty one. Well, he hasn't ruined that one, but I can't keep it in place! I fill it up and by 12 hours later.. it's emptied and dragged halfway down the hill. I did get a great video of him playing with his tarp and his jolly ball. See baby horse.. THOSE are appropriate toys! Well, at least the jolly ball. :)

Danny plays with the tarp

Danny plays with his jolly ball

Anyways... more practice until we get it :) And we're also going to work on those darn clippers and the bath :)

Oh, and I layed over him just a bit for fun :) He didn't care!

He's getting it!!!

So we went for another ride tonight... a sunset ride! And I do believe Mr. Danny is getting the hang of it! He's taking less and less time to stop being naughty.  ;) A fact that Fleck is very much appreciative of. :) Although now he's chewing on my saddle and even chewing on the reins and Flecks' cheekpiece. Again... Fleck did not find this amusing.

But we had fun. We walked and trotted a little and then he stayed tied to the trailer while I trotted Fleck around a bit to make sure he was feeling okay. Danny also loaded up first, although it took some encouragement. So yay! Tomorrow will be an in hand session and perhaps we'll start on clipping again.

Progress!!

So... Mr. Dan the man... had some fun today. After having the weekend off... literally without any human contact! I was gone with Fleck and poor Mike got called in to work so he didn't really do anything with them. But they had access to the grass pasture 24/7, so they survived. But I figured that since he had been without contact for a few days, he may have reverted back to a feral pony. Ha ha! Not so much. He was a good boy. But holy moses, he really is Little Flecker!!! I may seriously have to change his name....

Fed them tonight and both Fleck and Dan are both.... eating, then looking up out into the distance staring at something. Then Dan walks out of his stall to stare closer... just like Fleck does. Goobers.... And both have grain ALL over their faces... and proceed to slime me in the process. Sigh.. But Danny needs to learn a little thing called personal space and STAY OUT OF IT! I came awfully close to getting clonked in the head a few times. Not on purpose, but he needs a lesson in "this is my bubble, this is yours".

So after dinner they went out to the front field and I set up a small vertical (like...12" maybe) and then the tarp. Got Danny haltered and we worked on yielding to pressure, which he was great at. Although much better in his haunches than with his shoulders. Then we went and investigated the tarp. Which.. he's already played with it and drug it around the pasture when it was on the ground, but now that it was hanging up, it deserved a second look.. and then a big crunchy bite and tug. Hee hee.. So then we worked on our triangles. Man, that's harder than it looks. I don't know why... well, I do.. but it's hard to turn them away from you. But we managed it at the trot even. And he only broke into a canter a few times. We trotted through the high grass and I guess it tickled him cause he got all fancy :) Then we walked over the vertical, which Danny rocked back and jumped! Then we trotted the vertical and he jumped it nicely and politely. Yay! So then I let him go eat. But then I thought... hmmm... so I pulled the step stool up next to him and stood up on top of it... then leaned on his back a little... Not all my weight but enough. Nothing.... Then I swung a leg over... not my butt or body, just a leg. And no response. Then we did the other side and I might have felt the start of a humpy buck starting but it could have also been that he was swishing a fly. But nothing happened and I did it a few more times with no real response other than him getting to where he was moving away from me. :)

So yay.. Success :) It's about time to get him aquantated with the hose. Sponges and buckets are fine, but hoses spouting water are still scary. And clippers...and then braiding. We're aiming for the FEH show in August at Cedar Ridge :)

More Adventures for the Danny Man

So... we went on another trail ride today. We met up with Peri and Sunny and took the Olympic rings trail. Things were going well. As usual, Danny spent the first 20 minutes or so chewing and playing on the end of the lead rope. But he settled down a bit quicker this time and was a great pony for most of the ride. We finished up by the two little log jumps and I made him and Fleck jump them. Danny was hilarious! Peri said he really jumped UP! So then I got off Fleck and was going to do it in hand, because he was a little behind Fleck and trying to not do it rather than just following. I *thought* Flecky would stay put, but... nope. The big goober pulled a "Danny" and started trotting off! BUT... luckily he decided to come back a bit and let me catch him. So I was then able to get Peri to hold him and trot Danny over both logs. He did great, despite almost landing on me after the second one. Doofus! But yay... it was a fun adventure.

This was the slurpy marks he left on Fleck while chewing on him. There are matching marks on Fleck's face. Poor Flecky.....

 

Soon I plan to get him over to Ashland Farm again to play with the water and banks and ditches again. And I checked the calendar... we need to start our in hand traingle work again! There's a show in August and September!