Since the boys, Prize and Louie, have been so good about being led in together at night, I got the bright idea to lead them out together this morning. And, this might have worked out just fine if the mule handler wasn't such a clutz..... I put Prize's halter on and them got Louie. I led him out of his stall and asked him to whoa and stand in the aisle while I snapped the lead rope on Prize. Well, that was fine and I gave Prize's stall door a shove to open it up, turned and started out of the barn. Well, Prize's door had not slid open all the way and he banged into it coming out. No harm done to either Prize or the door but still I felt bad. Anyway, as soon as I stepped out of the barn, I dropped Louie's lead line. Their pasture is left of the barn and of course Louie walks off to the right. Thankfully he did not really seem to realize he was no longer attached to me but he walked off quite fast so there I was trailing behind him trying not to rush toward him or in any way indicate to him that we were not longer connected to each other. Prize was trailing along with me quietly. Louie hesitated to stare at something and I did at that point manage to get a hold of his lead one. Phew. So, I turn the boys around and head for their pasture. Louie is on my left side and Prize on the right. As we are walking by Marie's pasture, which is on the right side of us, Louie decides that maybe he would rather hang out with her. So, he ducks behind me and Prize and heads Right towards Marie. This spins me and Prize around who to this point has been very quite and well behaved. But he now decides this might all be a big game and time to play. So, he rears up HIGH and jumps on Louie. All this time Mary Joe, another boarder at the barn, has been watching and can't decided if she should jump in to save me or not. I got after Prize to get off Louie and let him know it was NOT play time and he settled right down. I start to lead them off again but Louie had planted his feet and insists that he really would rather stay with Marie. So, I had to get after him to get his feet moving again. The three of us executed a few more circles to get Louie moving but I managed to keep from getting tangled and we then proceeded to head down to the boy's pasture. All went from from this point. Sooooo, I can't blame the boy for being bad since if I had not been bumbling around there most likely would not have been any problems. Oh well, at least I was able to provide some morning entertainment for Mary Jo.
There is a mother and daughter that work at the barn for Nikki several days a week in trade for riding and lessons. The daughter, Sierra, is 12 years old (I think) and I asked her today if she would be interested in riding Marie. She was very happy to take me up on that offer. She rides English so I got out Marie's VERY dirty English saddle. I haven't used it in ages. Then I had to hunt around for her English bride. Then when I went to put the bridle on, I realized the bit was in it backwards. Hummmmmmm. I fixed that and we got Marie all tacked up. Then, we went into the indoor arena just so I could see how Sierra and Marie did together and to show her what Marie knows. The two of them did just fine. So, I told her to go ahead and ride Marie when ever she wanted to.
We made good progress on the barn today. Leigh came over to help. We got one of the 2nd floor wall built and stood up.
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