DAY 26 - Amazed

A chilly morning, mid 40's, and I got Possum fed by 8, then left him alone for most of the morning, getting laundry, phone calls, yoga and grocery shopping done. By 2, I got out and cleaned the paddock and cleaned out and refilled his water buckets. While the big bucket was getting filled, I put on his halter, to let him know that we were going to get busy soon.

After putting on my paddock boots, I went out to greet him with the lead line and the dressage whip. I clipped the lead line on, and played with him a bit with the whip, rubbing him and letting him chew on it a bit. I also did a stretched his neck a bit in each direction, made him walk, halt, back up and stand square a couple of times. Then took the lead line off and free-lunged him in the paddock. This was the first time I had done this with him this year, and he really enjoyed it! I clicked and asked him to trot, but he went right into a bunch of canters/gallops and bucks. I had had a feeling about today.. even though he was acting fairly mellow, it was fairly chilly last night and even all day, and he had a bunch of energy to get out. He ran around a bunch, galloping, cantering, bucking and blowing off steam, and I was glad I was not on his back for all of that!

After about 10 minutes or so, I let him rest and "join up," as they call in Natural Horsemanship. I believe that is just a term meaning that the horse stops and turns and comes to you, and begins to follow you. That's what he did, so I let him chill a bit, then I clipped the lead line back on his halter and led him into the stall to groom and tack up.

He was still a bit "looky," but I was glad I had run him around a bit. I gave him a good grooming, and he his nippy/kicky antics were remarkable less. By the time he was all tacked up, he was much calmer, and we walked out to the tree stump to mount up. I had to circle him one time after I tightened his girth because he had walked off, but then I set him up and got on, but had to ask him to whoa once I did. He obliged, then I let him walk off.

We walked around the paddock for a minute or two, and then we headed out the gate. We took a left out of the driveway and began the walk down to the bottom of the hill. He was cool.

At the bottom of the hill, we walked past the scary pipe (and again, he paid no mind to that), then when we got to the good part of the road, I asked him to halt. From the halt, I asked him to trot, and we trotted for about 15 paces, then I asked him to walk, then halt. Then we repeated that. We got to the bad part of the road, and walked down to Dr. Doyle's old place, stopped and looked, then walked back. Then we repeated the little exercise. Halt, trot, walk, halt. Trot, walk, halt, then walk. He trotted straight and balanced every time, so I was pleased.

Then, we walked back up the hill, and took a right onto the path behind Dad's. Today, my plan was to walk down the dip and walk all the way back up. As fun as it is to trot/canter/gallop back up from the dip and into the field behind Dad's, I wanted to make sure he didn't think that was something we were going to do every single time~!

So, at the bottom of the dip, he started to gear up for a trot, but I asked him to halt, then did a tight circle, then we walked on up the hill of the dip, and he was great! We continued walking all the way up the path to the back yard behind Dad's, then took a left and continued to walk up to the driveway and on to the road.

When we got to our secondary driveway, I took a right and we walked down that path, and around the little cross rail jump. We walked well past it, then circled and halted. Then I asked him to trot, and we trotted up to the jump and he trotted right over it, then we halted. We turned and trotted back over it in the other direction, and again, he just trotted over it, which was fine with me. Then we turned, halted, transitioned into the trot, and this time he actually jumped over the cross rail. We halted at the end, then walked back out onto the road.

We took a right, and I tried to get him to canter past our house, but instead it was just a big sloppy messy trot! OY!
I gave up on that, and we walked by the Rhoads house. He spooky jumped a couple of times from noises coming from their driveway, but nothing too bad. Then we walked onto Dodge yard, and worked in their back field a bit.

We trotted a figure eight several times, working on balance and keeping his head "up" and my body tight and controlled, then we worked on cantering for half circles two times in each direction. At the last canter, we transitioned down to trot and trotted around the top part of the field a bit. Again, he was excellent.

After that, I let him stretch his neck and walk low over to Big Mack, who was grazing in his temporary paddock, and we said hello to him. Then we walked out of the field and back to the road and headed back to our place, saying hello to Donna's daughter and two of her friends on the way back.

Visiting Big Mack this afternoon.

Instead of going back to the barn, though, I asked him to walk past our driveway and go back into the back yard through our secondary driveway. He did want to go back to the barn, but was game.

We walked and trotted a bit more in the back field, then I walked him down the back loop and through the little path. Then we cantered back up the hill, and back to a walk and to the barn.

I am so happy with how well we are getting along!!!!!