Dude must have been reading my blog and read that if he bucked again on the trail he would get the crop, because yesterday we rode and voila! canter - no buck. Threw his head down, but not badly and didn't shake his head either. We trotted a good bit on the way out. I was feeling good, balanced, etc. He was more collected, didn't stumble or rush - this latter is all the result of reading "Centered Riding" and putting it into practice. I made sure to get well out of his face on the couple of jumps we did, so I think that helped, too. Man, I love to jump him! He is so fantastic!
Funny note on trailer loading: Saturday I was getting ready to load Matt to go to the speed events at a local show. I had the trailer open and was trying to catch Matt when I heard something and turned to see Dude getting into the trailer! He got in and licked the manger, looking for leftover sweet feed. He didn't find any as I had wiped the manger clean, but he stayed in there anyway. I had to shoo Dude out when I got Matt up there to load. I guess I'll put the divider back in and start taking them both when we go somewhere. Dude seems ready. LOL. I still haven't shut him in, but I was proud that he practiced his trailer loading without me. He got out pretty slowly when shooed. LOL.
Monday Pictures
1 day ago
2 comments:
4H&H said: Yay - no bucking! Good for Dude!
Well, you know he's not scared of the trailer then!
Back years ago, I had just moved all my horses to a new place. I didn't have a barn or a feedroom, so I kept my feed in the horse trailer, which was parked in the pasture. Every time I bought feed, I'd open up the trailer doors (usually I'd enter through the escape door) and sweep it out and dump feed. My filly was born there. She'd follow me in, and when I was done sweeping and ready to dump the new feed, I'd have to make her go back out, she wanted to stay in there. The first time she was ever hauled anywhere, she acted like she'd been doing it her entire life. She was munching hay before we were halfway down the VERY bumpy driveway. She was totally relaxed for the entire ride and unloaded calmly... no sweat, no high head, nothing. She was like an old pro (actually, EVERYTHING this filly did, she did like an old pro. She'd have been such a good riding horse, she died when she was 3-1/2, and just been started in her saddle training.)
4H&H also said: How different do you think YOUR mindset was when shooing him out? Do you think that when you are actually loading / unloading you are more stressed and he picks up on it?
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