2007-2010 April 17th

April 17, 2007

Saddled Phoenix and rode him around the farm tonight.  Tried to work on one-rein stops and getting him to slow down on the way home.  He still wants to take off on me and I was giving him the wrong cue by saying "walk" over and over while pulling his head around.  Once I realized I was confusing him, we got along better.  Onyx was being a dope tonight and tried to kick Dave when he tried to clean his feet, so I had to hold him and do some backing and yielding of the hindquarters.  Hopefully his attitude improves!

April 17, 2008

Beautiful, beautiful day!  Dave took the morning off so we could spend time together with the boys.  He worked with Onyx in the roundpen, desensitizing to the step stool and even got on him bareback.  I rode Phoenix bareback in the pasture behind the riding ring.  We did a refresher on one-rein-stops, yielding the hindquarters, backing and lots of walk/trot transitions to get my muscles and his back in shape!  Also did 360-degree desensitizing to the stick and string and he was great with that, too.

April 17, 2010

It was the day of the Apocalypse today: beautiful sunshine when we fed the boys this morning that quickly changed to sideways-blowing snow for about 30 minutes.  When Courtney got here to trim hooves, we'd just finished with a cold mist and the sun was shining.  It snowed again when she finished with Onyx and started on Phee.  We left them in the roundpen after, but it started to "hail" snow pellets, so we moved them back to the corral and the shelter.  I did manage to get a little lungeing and desensitizing with Onyx done, at least.