Friday - both boys worked. Romeo in his cowboy-borrowed bit. He did great. First time he tried a zippy trot, I applied a little bitta bit pressure, and slam! on the brakes. That'll get his attention. Good stuff! We walked around the neighborhood a bit, then went to the neighbor's yard. He was un-boarding his windows, and sat to take a break. He sat down on his little square deck in the yard, and Romeo & I walked over to it. Romeo seemed scare of the deck, so I asked him to walk up to it, so he could see it wasn't going to hurt him. He walked right up to it, and even tried to take a step up on it. Good boy!
Chewie Friday - w/t/c in side reins, 6, then 5. He was pretty good. Not very round & not giving all the time at the poll, but not taking off & fighting it, either. 25 minutes of that, then I worked him at a collected & long loose walk, alternating collection & direction for 10 minutes. Sound, and happy.
Saturday - Chewie, repeat. He was pretty darn good. Accepting of the collected walk, with a nice forward walk. Hooves look great, and I think the pulse on the left front is gone. If it's not gone, it sure is hard to feel. I'm going to look for it again tonight. Right pulse is still there, but the hoof seems to be handling the shoe job well - He isn't dragging it, and still has nice front movement at trot. About 12 minutes of bareback walk - I lost track of time, we were having fun. I also asked for turns on the forehand, and turns on the haunches, first time since July. He wasn't 100%, but gave a pretty good effort.
Romeo, Saturday. In the morning, we had a longer work session, about 45 minutes total, with much more trot. The trot work was great. Nice & easy, slow, bending on neck rein & leg. Towards the end, I collected him up, and put him in a come & go workout of trot shortening & lengthening. He got pretty firey from that, and it made me consider maybe that lengthened trot doesn't feel good for him. Not sure.
Romeo Saturday night. We loaded up grain, supplements, and the trailer, and headed out. Went to the rodeo arena to hang out with the ropers. (This was not the original plan - the initial plans were to take Romeo to Cowboy Les' house, unload his things, then go for a short trail ride before leaving him there. But, cowboys change their plans frequently, and anytime someone says, "Let's go rope", there's no stopping it.) Romeo helped pen the steers, and moved them from the end of the pen to the roping chute twice. The second time was a true adventure. There were some riders outside the alleyway, helping us move the steers along. There was also a younger high-school aged kid holding an electric shock prod. Turns out, that prod has more influence than Romeo does. Two steers flew past us as the kid stood on the fence between the arena and the alleyway. The steers spooked, split with about 6 behind the kid (on the wrong side of the chute). It was a mess. I know the kid is learning, but when everyone hollers, "Get down off the fence! You're confusing them! Get down!", why not listen? augh.. people are stupid. :)
Both boys had Sunday off. Romeo is at Cowboy Les' house, and Chewie got a break. I was busy all day, between church at 8am, a kick-off singles group meeting at noon, NFL football at 3, obedience trainingat 430pm. It amazes me that I didn't sleep very well last night. I should have, as busy as I was.
Today is another day. Chewie will get his regular work tonight, with probably 20 minutes on side reins, 20 minutes bareback walk. I *might* ask for a brief circle each way wp jog.. I'm just not sure.
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