Okay I think an alien has come down and replaced my horses’ brain… had another great ride today with Big Guy.

The temps today were lovely but we had a good amount of wind, which if you have much dealings with horses you know can be a bit tempermental when it’s windy because wind brings more noise and flaps things about a bit.

When I took BG over to the arena he was acting pretty worked up so I thought, hm maybe no ride today. But after running around a bit in the arena, he calmed right down and we did some connection work.  Sometimes I will use a clicker for these, other times not; personally I like to mix it up a bit so the horse doesn’t know if there will be food or not.

This is simply walking about and seeing if he would follow – was he paying attention to me or wandering off again? The main thing I am looking forward is interest from the horse despite the big arena and other things he could leave and investigate. Since Z was also there he could have left and played with her or ate the hay with her. Instead he stayed very connected to me and willing to follow my signals – which were to come to me, walk beside me, stand, go away from me, and then turn and come back.

I also worked him around the mounting block because he has a bad habit of getting squirmy while I’m mounting. This habit has always ticked me off and I haven’t made much progress on getting him over it. Today though he was sweet as sweet could be!

It wasn’t going to work out with Z in the arena, so I eventually moved her out. I probably won’t put them in together again and this was only short term anyway in order to get them used to the new place.

Mounting was great. He was very still and cooperative! The ride went well. I didn’t use a whip because I figured the wind alone might be enough to get him antsy but in reality he was as calm as calm could be! Once again he floored me… I am thinking he has entered his mellow years.

Or an alien transplanted his brain… hmmm