Lions and Horses and Bears, OH MY!

Blu is the bomb!


After dinner last night, I gave Blu a semi-bath. By that, I mean that I left his coat on while I rinsed his legs, neck, shoulders, and face off. I did not want to get his back all wet because Faith and I wanted to go on a ride. Blu was a bit worried while I bathed him, but once again, he did not move hardly at all. The reason he worried was Judge and Faith left to play online in the playground--Faith also gave Judge a bath and it was full body at that, so she wanted to get him dry.

Somehow, the big green ball from down in the small coverall ended up in a pen. Blu and I walked it down the hill to take to the 50' round pen. Blu kicked it as we went along and one time it got away from us and rolled to the 100' pen where Kim Shannon was riding. I hustled over to start rolling it away, but Blu took the hustle out once we got there because it took him a bit to get into position--confusion about what I wanted was the culprit.

In the round pen, I took the savvy string off his neck and played at liberty. His stick to me was nice and soft and I turned it into a close circle. On this first one, I waited for him to stop before correcting him. When he got a lap without corrections, I yielded his HQ and brought him in.

After some more stick to me, I did a yo-zone 1 direct-yo. He tipped his nose left--Yay! Then I sent him left at the trot and asked him to do a close circle at the walk after several laps. Aha! Lights were going off in his head. I added my savvy string to my carrot stick and sent him off at a canter--just the stick had not been effective previously. When he asked if he could come in, I said yes and simultaneously sent him around in a close circle. He licked and chewed as he walked a sure, confident circle around me. How cool is that!

I did a change of direction in stick to me and Blu put a lot of effort into scootin' to ketchup--not mustard. He followed me to the fence and got into position when I wave my hand. After testing his walk trot and canter with a game of push the ball or canter a circle, we worked the gate and left. Faith decided to not come with me because Judge was still wet, so Blu and I trotted off. Blu was a little tight, so I just kept a good feeling with him. When we got to Arena Grande, he had relaxed. I asked Anna if she wanted to come with me and we rode off into the sunset bareback and bridleless on our tri-colored tobiano Paints.

Blu was so relaxed on our ride. He made nice canter circles around Anna as she walked. He maintained gait as Anna went up the hill and even maintained it as we went down hill behind her and came back up. We let the horses graze while we chatted. At 7:30, we headed home. Blu and I serpentined down the hill at a nice jog. I did not have to use my legs or string or stick at all.

Berin talked to Anna for a bit about next summer's externship and the January 1-Star Course. While they talked, I swapped between letting Blu graze and doing something so I could get better responsiveness to pick up his head when I asked him to stop eating.

I jogged home and stopped to let Blu graze under a tree. The grass is so nice! He enjoyed his pit stop, but needed some correcting when it was time for him to stop eating. On the way over the hill back to the pens, I practiced his "eat" and "stop eating" cues.

When I fed him, I had to throw pebbles at him until came to me with a nicer expression.

Last night, I had to make a trek to and from the lodge in the dark and all I could think about was getting attacked by a mountain lion. I was hustling! This morning, I had a bit of a late start, so there was no hot water left, so it was a cold shower for me.

The day got considerably better when Dennis the Cook came in with a bouquet of 7-week old Yorkies and his pockets full of them. It was adorable! I got to hold one of them--it was like a fuzzy maraca.

This morning, after cleaning the thermometers from the courses, a couple of tourists came in. They were from Michigan, so I got all excited. Unfortunately, tourists are off this week while Jae is out, but I sent them off to wander around campus with some Savvy Club goodies and information about joining Parelli Connect. I hope they join or at least try the 30 day Free Trial.

I love being in the office. I love getting meet all these customers and helping them out.

Natural Horsewoman Out.