Tripp likes flannel....

Tripp likes my flannel jacket...it was chilly this morning!



Tripp and I after buckling the bareback pad....



Finally got the western saddle on - but no girth for today. Isn't he cute?



Today was another good one with Tripp. I only had two long sessions with him today - he and I were both tired. :-)

I started out the morning by taking the paper out to read while he ate breakfast. It was kind of chilly this morning, but nice.
This morning for our first session we did a little bit of round pen work. He was on edge with the wind and the noise of the banging tin, not to mention my flannel jacket flapping in the wind, and he gave the illusion of almost running me over when I tried to get him to go to the pen. He had never done that before and I decided I might as well give him a reason not to do it again. He just needed something else to focus on. It took a little while, but he finally relaxed and focused on me. Then I remembered I had an old bareback pad with the buckle girth - so I put that on him and buckled it up. He was kind of goosey, but not bad at all! We walked around a while, I yanked on it, slid it around, tightened it a couple of times so it was a little more snug, and then I took it off and rubbed him with it again. As long as it doesn't make noise, he is fine. This morning's session was done without the lead rope.

This afternoon I took my Trail Rider magazine out there and I read a while - he just stood under the canopy with the other horses close by, and was like me....doing an awful lot of yawning! Wish I could have got a picture of that!

There was an article about the Midwest Challenge in Trail Rider and I sat there and boo-hoo'd when they talked about adoption day! Last year my husband and I went to the EMM, and I cried like a baby on adoption day because people's stories with their horses were so amazing.....now I get to have the pleasure of doing something with the mustangs that I could have only dreamed of a few years ago, and I am feeling what last years trainers felt. It is only week #2, and emotions are all over the place!

Then I sucked it up, and got to work! I put the western saddle on him - no girth - and it took a couple of times, but I finally got it there. We went thru the same drill with it as I did the bareback pad that morning - flopped it around, rubbed it, hit it, moved it, took it off and put it back on.....he finally ignored what I was doing, and I was happy. I was still wearing my flannel jacket and decided that it would look good on Tripp. I took it off and rubbed him with it, then threw it all over him, then put it on his neck and head and we walked, then on his butt and we walked. He did GREAT! Then we did the normal rubbing all over stuff. I still have not got his full legs yet - need to really focus on them because his hooves need to be shaped up.

My goal this weekend was to get the pads on him, and I was HOPING for a saddle. I completed my goals! This week will be a whole lot more of the same stuff, plus I will be enlarging the pen a little bit and putting in a couple rails for him to step over. I also want to get the nylon halter off him and put the rope halter on. Will play that one by ear....I don't want to get myself in a pickle!

Another good day gone by......

Until later.....Karen and Tripp

P.S. Tripp is very short backed, so my saddle that I saved and saved for will be too long for him. Hmpf! Will figure that one out later. Once he is trailer ready, we just might head south and visit George's Tack! :-) He has a variety of new and used saddles. Surely something will work! (hee hee.....looking for an excuse to look for another used saddle)