Romeo Over Fences

Friday, Chewie's shoulder looked to be 90% back to normal. I decided to give him one more day's rest, and caught Romeo out of the pasture.

Set up ground poles, after a brief warmup, Romeo trotted over the poles. Since that didn't seem to be a problem, I set up a short cross-rail. Again, no problem. Worked on walk, trot, crossrails. He behaved, stayed calm, but seemed a little disconnected from me, mentally. Total work - 1 hour.

Saturday, I did more of the same. Set up the flower box, with flowers. Trotted in-hand, no problem. Tried under saddle, oops! Romeo slammed on the brakes right in front of the flowers. I took away the flowers, but he was still knocking over the poles. Assuming it was "cockpit error", I worked on flat work, for a nice working walk, and a flowing trot. Total work, over an hour.

Caught Chewie, and found a right shoe missing. Dangit! While I was working on some yard work, Romeo disappeared out of Chewie's line of sight in the pasture. Chewie was running, bucking, and whinnying up a fit. He had, in fact, worked himself up into a sweat, breathing hard. I caught him then, hosed him off, put the horses each back in their normal pasture (Romeo in the open pasture, with no trees or otherwise). Chewie calmed down about immediately, but unfortunately, in all the tizzied fit, lost his shoe. Let Mike the Farrier know, and he's supposed to be out today.

Next entry, Sunday's Lesson ...