I just might have a super baby!! I finally got to ride him again, Thanks to some help from Christina. I stopped at her house on my way home from work and helped her with May. May was an excellent pony and did very well. We really have such good babies! Afterwards, Christina met me at my place and it was Dans' turn. Unfortunately this coincided with the delivery of the bobcat and the guy who was going to smoothe our our driveway. And unfortunately he had to park right next to the trailer. We walked Dan up to the trailer and he was pretty good. Until suddenly he saw the bobcat! He froze and honestly grew about a hand! Holy smokes! We talked him down and he investigated and decided it was okay. I tacked him up and as we were getting ready to head down to the round pen, it was time for the bobcat to back down the ramp off the trailer. Oh gosh... I let Danny look at it and while he got a little bug eyed he did pretty well. We headed down to the round pen and he really never gave it another thought. Now granted, it was on the driveway and he's been fine with other machinery before as we had some trees get cut down not too long ago. But still... for him to be cool with being ridden for the third time with a bobcat smoothing down the driveway not too far away... I'm impressed! He was in fact, so unimpressed that it was almost hard to get him to go.
We started with the usual waving around before I got on, but he didn't care. He wasn't too keen on walking off today and it took a bit of encouragement from Christina. He had whoa down pat and was turning pretty well today. He just didn't really want to go. And when he did he was awfully sluggish. It was very hard not to kick him on and encourage more go. But I'm trying very hard to teach him that soft aids are the way to go. And I do think that perhaps he has a brewing abscess on his left hind as he kept it cocked more than usual today. But he trotted out sound on the lunge line after my ride so... We'll see. Regardless we did about 10 minutes of walk on, turn right, turn left, and whoa. He was much less fussy with his head today. Very minimal flinging of it about and he was much less interested in chewing on the reins today too. Yay! Not sure if he was distracted with the bobcat (or more importantly the thought that perhaps Roany and Flecky were going to leave him as they threatened to). He got lots of pats after I got off and he seemed extra snuggly and extra proud of himself.
SOOOOO Much fun!! I'll do a few more rides to help get the "walk on" established and then he'll have the year off again as far as riding. He gets so bored so we'll do more ponying on the trails and long lining on the trails. And maybe he'll even get to come to some shows with Flecky and I to get him used to the atmosphere.
He also has his show coming up soon!! In a few weeks we'll take him back to Cedar Ridge for the FEH show. I'm hoping he'll behave better and the judge can actually evaluate him. It'll be interesting to see how he stacks up when he actually is able to be judged. I may be biased but I feel like his last place showing last time was only because he was too much of a punk to show anything off. So I'm hoping he'll behave. I've got to start some primping though! His mane is an unruly mess and he has all sorts of scrapes and lumps and bumps. He's in desperate need of a bath too as his blanket is so dingy from all the mud and dirt he's been playing in. Looking forward to it though!
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