A Different Sort Of Proud Parent Moment
Have I mentioned lately how proud I am of Rusty? In the last couple of months he’s turned into a grown up horse. He went from prancing and wanting to bolt when we left the arena to a very confident horse who is scared of very little and really wants to go out and do stuff, explore the country.
Today is supposed to be the last nice day for a week. Snow is expected tonight through Monday. The clouds are rolling in, the barometer has to be dropping like crazy. All things that usually make a horse slightly mad. To top it off Rusty hasn’t been ridden for a week or so. The footing is still ice covered mud. AND the guy is here to grind hay today. For anyone who hasn’t seen a hay grinder, the big kind, I did not take a picture. I didn’t seem prudent. But this is what we’re talking about…
So, since I had a minute, we went for a ride 🙂
Rusty was practically leaping away from my leg when I asked and wanted to strike out at a trot when we left the arena. Unfortunately I had to ask for a walk. With all the above mentioned factors in play I didn’t think it wise. Plus it was a good time to work on transitions. We rode past the guys with the payloaders and the grinder and rode to the bull pen.
Inside we quietly followed a bull or two around. I’ve seen Rusty circle and turn the goat when they are in the pen together, it didn’t take Rusty long to figure out that this was the same thing. I had to keep him held back, both to a walk, so we weren’t running the bulls or running ourselves on the slick ground, and to keep him from biting them. One even walked back and forth so we could practice working him nicely. We trotted a couple of big badly shaped circles on what dry ground we could find. Then I got off and we worked some more on sitting. The big pile of manure pushed up in there, I’m hoping, will make a good spot to train on.
Once done there we went back out and rode over to the stack yard, where they were grinding hay. And there right next to the grinder we worked until Rusty settled down. he did wonderfully. First the airplane now the grinder, our next big step is to haul off the place a few times and make sure he still does alright. Not as easily done as one might think.