Mother Nature is a Crab Apple Today!

Wednesday evening I was flying solo, so no pictures to speak of. I did get a few of Tripp playing with the tarp, but they are not clear. I am still trying to get used to Brian's camera. His ball and jolly ball were out of the pen and down the hillside, so he had a little fun sometime during the day. He popped his other ball, so we need to replace it. We put in two barrels and he has been playing with those too.

I put the bridle on him and let him wander a bit. I have a real problem with him mouthing the thing...I would think by now he would mouth it a while, then settle down. Nope! He keeps getting that tongue over the bit, and I was helping him get it back because it turned into a ME thing! ACK! I finally had to walk away and let him figure it out. Once he was standing there without moving his mouth and I walked up to him and checked - it was UNDER his tongue and he just dealt with it - for about 10 seconds....then mouthing again. We did several bends and he did great with that. I was glad it didn't take much for him to catch on.

After a while I decided to get on and move him around. I would let him wander around in the pen while he was figuring out how to deal with the bit. We walked and trotted a while, then I picked up on the reins and started trying to guide him. At first he pulled against it but I kept a constant pressure and he finally gave to it. What started out as very rusty steering turned into something much more smooth! We also worked on our backing up. I was hoping he would pick up on the verbal that I use - and to be honest, at first I was not sure that he did. He did finally figure out the backing up thing too - I was so happy!

I opened the gate so we could practice going in and out without a hissy fit. I did what Brian suggested the other evening and stayed in the pen and rode by the gate a few times both ways before going out. It is amazing how much giddy-up and go this boy has with that gate open! :-) We did go in and out, and he did try me, but we worked it out. I don't like his backing up when he gets mad - we backed part way down the hill and that made me a little nervous.

What worries me the most is me not realizing if the bit is under the tongue, and I pull and hurt his gums. So don't pull, right? Well, when I put light pressure and he tries to pull away, I hold my ground...I will be reading to make sure I am doing what I should be. When we were done he looked very sad. Brian got home shortly after and he said he was not sad, he was just pouting like he did in the beginning when he learned something new. Pouting.....Sad......whatever! He is my baby and his feelings were hurt. :-) I will keep at it and we will both figure it out.....

THURSDAY: Today Brian and I took off work. Hay was supposed to be delivered this morning (didn't show up - just now talked to the guy and he had equipment failure and totally forgot to call - no worries. At least he still has our hay.) and this afternoon we were headed to Brian's daughter's day-care with Flash, the large pony. I was pretty excited about this! The forecast was clear until this evening so we thought we were okay.

This morning I get up early to tons of lightning and thunder! ACK! WHAT THE HECK????? It was almost as big as the storms that went thru the other day. We were both pretty bummed...but radar looked like it was going to clear for a while this afternoon.

We did get Flash to the day-care, but it was not long before it started to rain. Only a few of the kids got to ride Flash, which bummed me out. They all took it real well because they got to feed him snacks. I busted up a bunch of alfalfa cubes and Flash thought he was in heaven! When it started raining a bunch of the kids jumped in the trailer, and the other bunch toughed it out and hung out with Flash.
I didn't get any parents permission to use the pictures on the blog, so I am putting on pictures where you can't see their faces...hee hee...but you can tell they are having fun. This is the die hard group who hung out with Flash. Some of the others went back in the building, while another batch were running in the puddles. They were all SOAKED! Then the lightning started...time to go! We are going to do this again on a much better weather day! The kids think it is a good idea too. :-)






This little boy had a broken arm so when it started raining, he had to jump in the trailer to keep his cast dry. We had to bring Flash to him so he could feed him, then there was green spit on his hands and he thought it was funny to clean his hand on my jeans!

We still had a good time in spite of the weather.

Oh yeah, here is the good one! We were hooked up and ready to go...checking lights...Brian started the truck then shut the door. This truck locks right after you start it....not after you take off and get up to a certain speed. Yep, the sucker is locked! He asks about my purse with my keys, I had just put it in on my side, SHUT THE DOOR, then ran to the back to look at lights! ARGH! We are 1/2 hr from any town with a lock smith, we had a full tank of gas, and we had a day-care full of kids waiting to meet Flash! The back glass has a slider, so we busted it out. We tried to get the thing out of the track first with no luck, and we used a cushion on the glass hoping it would break the clasp - no luck. Now if anybody has to bust out their slider, let me tell you what - BE CAREFUL! Once it broke the glass shattered and blasted all the way to the front! It is a crew cab! But better yet, have an extra key stashed somewhere! We sure will from now on.
I am really mad about it because we know NOT TO SHUT THE DOOR WITH THE TRUCK RUNNING UNLESS THE WINDOW IS DOWN, but once those little kids came out all dressed up for the part in their boots and cute country horsey shirts, I didn't care about the glass. I will call a couple of places next week - in the meantime it is temporarily repaired.

That is all I have for today. I hung out with Tripp tonite and had him follow me around, but it was so slippery we didn't do that long. We did pick up all 4 feet, and I was so proud of the fronts because I didn't have to pull on his feathers to lift them.

I think we have more storms the next few days....that is really messing with my schedule, but oh well, I am happy where we are at. It will work out.

Until later....
Karen and Tripp