Restful Rainy Day

Today was a quiet rainy day. The rain came with mixed blessings. The bad is there was no working on the barn in the rain. The good was that no work on the barn meant I could actually get a reasonable amount of sleep. The 2nd floor rafters are all up. Fred got the siding on the front and the door hung. Our neighbor Mark has come over a couple times to help Fred out and his help is so much appreciated. And another blessing of the rain is that it is December and it was not snow!!! Yeah! It was quite warm today being near 50 degrees.

The other blessing is since I got a normal amount of sleep, I was able to play with Louie in the indoor arena today. when I got to the barn Marie made it very clear she wanted to come into the barn NOW IF NOT SOONER!!!  She's had enough of standing out in the rain. They boys didn't seem to care and were out bopping around in the pasture. I brought Marie in then when I got to their pasture, I had to call them up. They came right away. So far Prize has always been the first up and insists to be the first one haltered. But today Louie came up and held his ground and didn't let Prize butt him out. Prize like to lock up his feet on the way up to the barn for whatever reason. Never for long though but it has caused us to go off course as Louie continues walking along. Today I worked on making Louie pay more attention to me as I know if I stop, he should too. So, when Prize would lock, I'd stop and when Louie continued I'd give him a little snap with the lead rope and pull him back into position beside me. Then I'd get Prize going again. If Louie started to walk off before I got Prize moving, I'd correct him again. Louie did pretty good and only required mild corrections. He did seem a bit out of sorts though today. There have been a couple days now when I've brought him in that he seemed to be in a bad mood. He's not taking it out on me but just not his usual cheerful, loving self. But, he seemed very happy to go work in the arena with me. I just lunged him a bit and he was very good. I had him do some side passing and backing. Then had him fetch my lunge whip for me. Bart thought that was real cute. Marie screamed her head off the while time I was working with Louie. To his credit, he didn't pay any attention to her at all. He seemed to be in a much better mood when I put him back in his stall.