Catch Up

Epic adj. heroic; majestic; impressively great. This word describes every encounter I have had with my horses since the new year began. 2009 is gone and I am here now, happy to be here. The things I am achieving are what I have always wanted, but I am always shocked when I get there. My horses generally run to me. I have taught Misty how to roll the ball with her nose. She will roll it as she walks next to me or run after it if I kick it. Treats helped her get that playdrive built up like that. Blu has learned to paw with the leg I paw, and I am beginning to move it to when I am on his back. Unfortunately for my journal, I did not record a lot of these sessions, so I will have to bask in memories and get down what I can, now.

January 1st
I worked in the morning, but when I got home, I went to the farm and played with the horses.

January 2nd
I dewormed Blu without issue. I approached him where he was sunbathing in the pasture and he walked to me. I played with his mouth and gave him the paste, no lines, no problem. When I got to Misty, she was having none of it, so I went back to the barn and grabbed a piece of twine and a carrot stick. She was very willing to work with me when I came back. I put the twine over her poll and

January 3rd

I did not even see my horses. I got home very late from work.

January 4th
I did not see my horses, today, either. After working in the morning, I hung out with a friend and went to a 4H meeting.

January 5th
What a great day! I did chores with my friend in the morning, went back a couple hours later and played with Blu for half an hour. We went and watched the movie Avatar then drove out to Mason to play with a friend's horse. I am blogging a separate blog for that time.

January 6th
My friend from Mason came to my farm and she played with Misty while I played with Blu. We had a great time. I taught her some of the basics on the ground and then we rode. Misty was friendly with her, a bit crowding in search for treats, but I showed her how to block her space. We rode bareback in the halters. We stood and talked a lot, and it was during those times that Blu would get bored and paw, and that was the time that I began to move pawing to a cue "under saddle" (we were bareback). It won't be long before he will be doing the Spanish Walk! And all of 3 sessions, only parts of which were dedicated to this, he is already learning the cue for it with me on his back. Blu was very sticky to me, but also very mouthy today. He was getting super bored because I kept standing around watching Misty and my friend. I ended up putting him away for a bit so he could bother Ginger and Hoosier while I sat around watching Misty. When I went to get on, he took a while to give me permission, but I waited it out. One time, when he swung his head around to bite me, I stuffed a treat in his mouth, and he was kind of like "what?!" That is when he finally stopped swinging his nose at me and stood still so I could jump on. While riding, I worked on protecting our space from Misty. She was especially ticked yesterday, but I protected Blu. Blu has also been a bit upset by me shifting my weight forward or backward to dismount or reaching for something. He puts his head up and tenses. I have not ruled out back pain completely, but after some friendly game of me leaning forward and backward until he relaxed, he was fine with weight shifts. I worked on the pattern of going through the box then turn, face, and wait. I also worked on some isolations. I had him going forward with his hind end as his front end went crooked (shoulder-in) and halfpasses at the walk and trot.

January 7th I have only fed the horses this morning, but I will be going back down later to play with both horses at the same time (I think). I plan on riding Misty while I play with Blu on the ground at liberty.

Natural Horsewoman Out.