Thursday morning was lesson day! I got Possum fed by 7 so he'd have plenty of time to savor his breakfast before we tacked up to meet Ryan over at the field by 9. We walked around the field and watched Ryan finishing up with Donna and Big Mack, who were riding around in the paddock with no lunge line on for the first time! Ryan thinks she's ready to take Big Mack out on a walk with Possum and me, so we are going to shoot for that, hopefully -weather permitting- this coming Tuesday.
Our lesson expanded on what we've been learning, and this time we added working on extending and shortening Possum's trots. I learned to keep my posting "small" for shorter trots and to post "tall" for longer, extended trots. That was fun. We decided not try cantering because of his feet being so long (as it was, he did trip a few times out in the field because his hooves are so long). The farrier had rescheduled for Friday afternoon, but then, because he was running behind again and traffic from the Fair was bad, we have rescheduled again for tomorrow (Sunday morning.)
After his lesson, he had the rest of the day off, but I did take him out later in the day before his supper so that he could have some time in the back yard grazing.
Friday morning, Donna and I had planned to take the boys out with us on our weekly walk. It was fairly calm, but a little bit cooler, and for some reason, Possum was feeling pretty frisky. I went out to halter him and brush him off around 9:45, but when he saw me walk into the paddock with the halter, he walked away from me. So, I made him move his feet a bit, and he let off some steam. Donna's daughter came walking down with the baby in the stroller, and Possum was all googly eyed about that, but I was finally able to halter Possum. Donna and Big Mack came down the road, and once again, Possum was all fluster about that, too.
Finally, we got out of the paddock and onto the road, not without Possum spinning around a few times and holding his head and neck up high, his eyes bulging. I knew he'd settle down eventually, and he did. We took our time walking to the end of the dirt road and back, and then I led him out back to graze for a few minutes as Donna led Big Mack home. Posssum had a small case of separation anxiety, but he came around again soon enough.
Around noon, I tacked him up and we went out for an easy walk-about. I didn't want to push it too much with his long toes! We walked around the back and then up past the Dodge barn and around behind Lenny's, then back up to the Dodge field, where we did a small amount of trotting about. I remembered what I had learned in the lesson from the day before, and Possum was really good! He was very mellow and agreeable. Then we walked home and called it a day after being out for about 45 minutes.
We left around 6 for our gig in Westbrook, and Possum was content munching on the many piles of hay I left out for him.
Today, Saturday, it is drizzling, though not too cold. Because of the rain, his long hooves, and another long night of music tonight, I'm quite sure I won't tack him up to ride, but I will probably, at some point, brush him and take him out for a walk and some grazing. Long long long night ahead!
Then tomorrow morning, finally, we get to see Butch and Possum with get his hooves trimmed and the front shoes put back on! We'll see how the time looks and hopefully, we'll be able to get out for a short ride before we head out for our Sunday afternoon gig.
*Blog note: I had originally uploaded some videos through this Blogger platform, but was disappointed to see that the videos did not show up when I looked at this blog on the iPad. So, the other day, I loaded the videos to my YouTube page, and now they do show up on the posts on iPad. I've also labeled the blog posts with the label "video" so that they are easier to find, and I'll do that from now on whenever I add a video. Look for the "video" link on the top right sidebar. Okay.
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