I was going to be lazy today but when I heard this weekend is going to have record cold temps, I decided I'd better go over and ride. I got to the barn around noon time. Louie was napping in his paddock but perked right up when he saw me. He was very quiet coming up to the barn. Though he did want to stop and investigate an open horse trailer by the barn. But, then he locked right up at the barn door and didn't want to come in. I'm not sure if he does this because he associates the barn with being shut in his stall,(though that's only during storms)or he knows he has to work when in the arena and doesn't want to do that or because most of the time when I go over, no one else is in the barn so he has to leave his buddies. Possibly it's a little bit of all theses reasons. He never locked up at the arena door though so I don't think it's the work that he is protesting about. Anyway, he didn't really make much fuss, just enough to let me know what he wasn't thrilled about going in the barn. I didn't really get after him, just quietly kept asking him to step forward and after making all sorts of funny faces, he walked in quietly.
He was very quite on the cross ties today and real relaxed when we got in the arena. I was wondering how it would go after the "tire drag episode" of the other day as I'm really not sure how his little mulie mind processed that session. But, nothing to worry about. I did lunge him first but he was quiet enough that I didn't really need to. He didn't goof around today. He simply did what was asked nicely. And for ONCE there were no mule eating boogers in the arena! One of the MulesOnly list members said maybe Louie figured he'd scared them all away with his tire slinging. He was kidding but knowing how mule think, he may just have been right! LOL.
Today I asked Louie to trot in hand in a straight line as I'll need him to do at CTR's and endurance races. Took him a few tries to understand what I was asking but then he caught on and was willing. And to think that not so long ago I was so sure I would never be getting Louie ready for distance competitions. And while it still may not work out for Louie to be a distance riding mule, how nice it is to see Louie doing so well that there no reason for me not to give it a try with him.
He was perfect for mounting. Lined right up to the mounting block and stood like a rock. And then he went right to work with no silliness. He was super light with all cues and did very nice transitions. His whoa is getting VERY good. When I was done riding we practiced ground tying and he did very good with this also.
So, it was a great day at the barn.
No comments:
Post a Comment