It was late in the evening, and I knew there wouldn't be much daylight. Mosquitoes and other flying pests have been yucky lately, so I wasn't very motivated to turn the lights on. I decided to catch Chewie, clean him up, and free lunge a bit.
We worked on 2-laps each gait & direction. Plenty of transitions and direction changes. I was also working on visual cues to get him to stop and come to the center of the round pen. I think he was getting it - he'd see my arm reach out when I'd exhale, and walk into the center, licking & chewing.. "scratch me, momma.. right there... thanks momma".
I grabbed my helmet, his bit, and crawled on. Rather than 15 minutes of plain regular walk, I worked on spiral in & out, plenty of direction changes, and oodles of neck reining. We'd make circles in to the center, reverse out, or complete the circle. I split the round pen into quarters, and did quarter turns. All walking, no halt-breaks. Solid walk for 15 minutes. No rein contact, all neck reining & leg cues. Spiral in & out without bit contact was funny. He was leaning on leg cues for every step. Very very neat. When I got off, he was yawning, licking & chewing, and shook all over. *giggle* Good to see he enjoyed it as much as I did.
Had a call from Cowboy Les last night... "Can Romeo wear a martingale like I am using on him when he competes jumping?" I responded, "No. That's a running martingale. No extra aids during flat classes, and standing martingale only over fences. There's no reason to even need that at the lower levels he competes at." For crying out loud... if he can't train the horse without contraptions, why did I leave him there?! His other two horses he trained, Sugar, and Blue, on the flat, when they're not on cows, work in a Tom Thumb with a small leather strap as a chin strap. If he can train them on a lousy Tom Thumb, why in the heck does Romeo need a running martingale and a twisted wire snaffle? There's no reason to add contraptions. Geez...
The rest of life, is, well, life.
2 comments:
I like your writing style. Sounds like you had a good night w/your boy. I agree, the cowboy should not need a bunch of contraptions!
What is a kick-off singles group?? Sounds interesting...maybe I could use one of those to meet a cowboy at! ;)
The church I attend doesn't have squat for a singles program. No Sunday School classes, no singles activities, nothing. Once you graduate high school, you're "out of the circle" until you're married with babies.
I pestered & nagged, and we finally coordinated something... One of the couples that has a son my age hosted a "get together who's interested" luncheon at their house. Attendance was mild, but 5 singles showed up. We're working out a plan.
Not a "cowboy search", but certainly better than hitting the bars looking for friends in my age bracket. :)
You're welcome to attend, tho' I think the commute is a bit long.
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