Still Roundpenning

Louie did great today. When I came out with the halter, he at first ran off, then after circling the paddock, came right to me. He is leading so nicely with just the lightest pressure to "come" with me. I love seeing just how little pressure I can use to get him to do things and seeing him respond so nicely.

He is so good about grooming and being saddled. He always stands quietly. He has never been thrilled about having a bridle put on. It's the bit. He doesn't care about the headstall being put on, just taking the bit in his mouth. He's never bad about it, he'll just tip his head away and get a worried look. When you pull his head back, he will stand quietly and take the bit.

Today I got out my blue tarp. I tossed it up on his saddle and had him carry it out to the middle of the paddock. This worried him a bit and at first he walked like he was carrying eggs on his back. He's already had the tarp all over him both by me and someone that had him previously. I then laid the tarp on the ground, spread it out and asked him to walk over it. He hesitated but didn't make any big fuss. Once again, it only took very light pressure to encourage him to walk over it.

I lunged him for about 10 minutes. Just walk and trot in both directions. He is doing well with verbal cues. I then put a bridle on with just an O ring snaffle and attached driving reins. He has been ground driven before. When I've done it it's been with a driving bridle with blinkers. I don't know what others have used with him. He'd ground driven very well for me with a driving bridle. I wanted to use an open bridle as I want to desensitize him to seeing things going on behind him. He was definitely worried at first. He spun around a few times but I just quietly kept getting behind and asking him to go. It didn't take long to get him going around nicely. He will need more time with this as he wasn't totally relaxed but he did well.

To end I just brought him over to where the tarp was on the ground, dopped his lead to see if he would ground tie, and proceeded to fold up the tarp with much noise and flapping. Louie stood like a rock through all this. I then threw the folded up tarp on his back and led him to the barn. He was more relaxed about carrying the tarp this time though he still walked carefully. Then back out to the trailer to get untacked. He is such a nice mule to work with.