Sunday was lovely weather, it’s finally starting to cool off a bit. I think the horses (and donkeys!) are enjoying the weather as well. We had a family come out that was interested in adopting a couple of the horses. Their biggest problem was trying to narrow it down to which ones(s)!
We wormed the herd last weekend, all 28 horses. It was downright easy now that everyone is friendly and halter broke. I’m reminded of worming horses last fall when it would take all day, or even two days. Most of the two dozen Iowa horses weren’t halter broke at that point, so we were herding horses in and out of corral panel pens and convincing them to eat grain laced with wormer.
Trixie pony and I went for a short, but nice, little ride in the round pen. Trixie is a three year old mare, half pony and half saddlebred. I have been working with her sporadically since mid-summer. She is a playful, friendly, exuberant little mare. You can see a short clip of her working on ground work here.
Anyways, I haven’t worked with her in two weeks, so yesterday we had a short session reviewing things we’ve done before. She did great! We did a bit of ground work, including practicing standing by the mounting block for me to get on. I then got on five or six times. Each time I got on we’d walk a lap or two around the round pen or do a few circles and then I would get off.
She’s still only had a handful of rides at this point, so repetition of the basics is really important! I want her to be great at standing still for mounting/dismounting, at woah and go at the walk, and at steering before we start trying anything more complicated.
She tries hard, but she does sometimes get a bit distracted. We were riding between two targets and she was focused and doing well. Then Boo, the cat decided to join us in the round pen. She was quite interested in going after the cat! She veered off to the side to walk purposefully after him. He dashed off–Boo’s not so keen about the horses ever since Dillon stepped on his tail this summer. Trixie watched sadly as the cat disappeared under the fence. I think she’d be happy to make friends with him if he would give her a chance!
