Finally got to Ride

I had a very nice day to day. This morning I was in no hurry at the barn so I took my time doing chores at the barn. Once I was done I went out and got Marie. I put a bridle on her, jumped on bareback and bopped around the barn for a bit. She was so happy to be getting the attention. I also ride a little bit in the arena. The boys were a bit worried about Marie not being right in her pasture where they could see her at all times but didn't get too anxious.

This afternoon Fred and I finished putting the decking on the 2nd floor of the barn. Yippee! Tomorrow we can start building the 2nd floor walls.

When I went back to the barn this evening to feed, I once again brought Louie and Prize in together. Prize like to bug Louie when I'm trying to put his halter on but he's now getting the idea that I am not going to let him bother Louie when I'm out there with them. I even put the gate strands back up tonight while holding them both and they were very good. I gave Louie a good grooming while he was eating. Then I decided to work and possibly ride him. Louie was very quiet on the cross ties. I saddled him up and took him into the arena. This was his first time in this arena. He was curious but didn't seem at all worried. I walked him around for a bit to look around. Just as I was getting ready to lunge him, another woman came into the arena with her horse. That horse TOTALLY freaked out when he saw Louie. The horse was a teen aged OTT Thoroughbred. The woman kept him in the arena for a while but he just did not calm down. He danced around and blew and snorted with bugged out eyes. I brought Louie up to him so he could sniff but that did not help at all. The woman eventually gave up and left the arena. The horse was spooking in the barn aisle after leaving the arena. Louie was overall very quiet tonight. I lunged him for a short time and he was very responsive. He was somewhat distracted but still listening to me also. So, I decided to go ahead and ride him. I didn't ride him for long at all but it was good to get on him. I was really very pleased with him tonight. I couldn't find my good lunge line so had to use my cheap thin one with the wimpy snap on the end. While Louie was quite distracted at first, he never tried to pull away from me or drag me around. He was showing a level of maturity that was nice to see.