Many Distractions....

I had the evening shift at the barn tonight. I had planned to get there a bit early to work with Louie. But, life being what it is, that didn't go quite as planned. We have purchased a new car and I had to take Fred to the dealer to pick it up this afternoon. So, I didn't get to the barn until the usual time of just a little after 4:00 pm. I decided to squeeze in what Louie time I could manage anyway.

As usual, Louie rolled in his stall as soon as he was in it. So, I groomed him in his stall so that all the shavings I brushed off would be in his stall and not in the barn aisle. Then I put him on the cross ties and tacked him up. He was quiet and well behaved. I lunged him first as usual. There were a lot of thing going on tonight at the barn to distract the mulie mind. I was the only one in the arena but all three cats were running around and acting crazy in the arena. Louie is so good with other animals and just wanted to play with the cats. And the cats are not smart about staying out of the way. They kept getting right in Louie's path but he would just carefully step around them each time. There were also people up in the loft moving some hay. Louie was curious about that but thankfully not frightened by it. Bart was moving snow and/or manure with the tractor around the outside of the barn and that was making a lot of noise. This usually bothers Louie but he was ok with it tonight. Marie was absolutely pitching a fit about Louie being out of sight! She always calls to him when I go in there but tonight she was having a total fit!!! Louie did not react to this at all. And, the horse that is scared of Louie started acting up in his stall. It's hard to believe the horse could know that Louie was in the arena as he can't see the arena from his stall. And Louie never made a sound but somehow the horse did know. He was freaking out and doing big deep belly snorts. And Louie started doing belly snorts in reply! AGH! But, Louie wasn't upset or freaked out, just snorting back. Louie was really very, very good tonight. Usually that many distraction will cause him to just tune me out. But tonight he stayed focused on what we were doing. He was definitely keeping and eye on all that was going on around us but he still managed to keep focused. I was very pleased with this. I ran out of time to ride. I did get on him for just a minute and again he was very quite and good.