Graceful I am not!!!

Tripp moves away from the bucket and I don't let go...until I have to!




Tripp lets me hang off of him...yeah, very graceful!



Tripp the blue caped crusader....almost. :-) He did good!



Us after working and before playing in the hose.


This evening was a lot of fun. I was not sure what I was going to get done because Brian was going to go get hay - we just needed to wait for the dude to call back because he was still out in the fields. I didn't want to get saddled up then have Brian take off - so I played.

I started out jumping around him and making like I was going to get on him bareback. I don't want to get up there until both of us are ready - especially since I seem to be more 'balance challenged' as I get older. :-)
A few years ago we went to see Clinton Anderson and he went thru the typical "don't try this at home if you don't know what you are doing" but also stated he knew everyone would! He also mentioned that a bigger person who cannot jump on their horse bareback was going to eventually make a 'kid broke' horse because that person would be all over the place trying to get on, and the horse would learn to deal with it. Well folks, that was me! I did jump up and managed to hang off his side a couple of times, but it wasn't pretty! I worked on both sides, which is a joke because of the right handed left handed thing! Thru me trying to jump ON him but landing AGAINST him several times, he did great! There were only a couple of times that he actually flinched, and that was when I had the bucket to stand on - he moved and I held on and lifted my feet up. When I left the bucket my knees bumped his belly and he flinched - other than that, he either slowly moved away, or just stood there wondering what the heck I was doing.

I did end up grabbing the bucket to stand on so he could see me over his head, and so I could actually lean over him. I was surprised how well he stood with me moving that bucket around on each side. The only time he tried to move away was when I kicked it to scoot it closer to him. It was a little too quick as far as he was concerned - so I did it again until he stood there.

Yesterday evening I unfolded a tarp and layed it in his pen. It started out a long skinny folded tarp, but when we went out this morning it was on the other side of the pen in a pile. We decided we want to put up a 'Tripp Cam' so I can see what he is doing when we are gone.
This evening I drug that tarp around him and he snorted at it, only ran once, and the rest of the time kept his eye on it. Not near as bad with the big blue cape as he was with the plastic bags.

Then we worked on the plastic bags for a few minutes. Kept it short and simple, did not try to move past his neck (yet) and then I stopped.

We also did some bending, and I worked on him dropping his head. When I would halter him he would not raise his head way up, but he would not lower it either and I got to thinking that if by some freak chance he goes home with someone else, it would be nice if he would have good manners and drop his head. We have only worked on the head drop one other time, and I didn't pull the halter down that time. Tonite I tugged on the halter AND pressed on his poll, and WOW! he dropped that head without batting an eye! After a few times, I had his head almost to the ground. I hugged him and we stopped.

Then what did I do next? GOT OUT THE WATER HOSE! WOO HOO! I wonder if I am spoiling him too much with the hose......duh! No way! When he is happy I am happy!
I can't wait to ride him thru a creek! It will be so much fun!

Until later.....
Karen and Tripp