revenge

Revenge is sweet. Just a little bit...

investigating balloons

Superbowl balloons along the road gave Major a pause, so I made him investigate. And proceeded to torment him by picking them up, moving them around, generally bothering my horse.

Major, me and the balloons, a very Magritte photo!

OK, I'm a small petty human, but after all the hassle he gave me the other day, this made me laugh.

And last night I took him out for a bit of a training ride, trying to beat the quickly-setting sun. I headed out on the trail. Some people would practice this in the arena, but the issue is that Major listens great in the arena. it is the excitement and energy of the trail that makes his brain fall out. I wanted to get him a bit riled up, because honestly, when he is calm he is a totally good boy. So we "chased" some mountain bikers who were headed out on the trails, then with a pretty full head of steam continued up the hill, where I asked for whoa. "What?" Major wondered, "In the middle of the trail?" Yes.

And we continued like that, a little trot, him trying to pull away, make him slow, whoa for a bit, was he listening? About 20 minutes into the ride he had figured it out pretty well, I got some very nice medium trot even while headed home. He wasn't very happy about the whole thing, but neither was he fighting me.

I stopped, took a photo of the lovely sunset, asked Major to mellow out and eat some grass. Heading home there was no unasked-for trotting allowed. Often I do let him choose our gait, when he is being good. Today, nope, had to listen. And he was very good. Going home I got a huge, loose flowing walk, just lovely.

At home he was more sweaty than the 40-minute ride warranted. Maybe making his brain think made him sweat. But toweled off and put back in his pasture, he was happy with dinner. I was just happy that the training is still there, just forgotten in the heat of the moment. More rides like this will be scheduled.