What a fantabulous day! Just beautiful.....

I was sitting on the deck taking a break and took a couple pictures of the flowers.  I was not quick enough to get the hummingbirds that were zipping around.






This is me, thinking I was going to read a while, but I could not stop watching the hummingbirds zip around the hanging baskets and watching everything else that is out there....it was a beautiful day!  (I just started this book - based on a true story)

Last night we had a beautiful sunset.  Wish I would have gotten pictures tonite too...it was even better than last night.  I love the one of a kind pieces of art that God shares with us.

Wyoming's nose....

Ace and Susie were begging for treats.  Now I don't know what would make them think I would give them treats.....so I did!  HA HA HA!!!!  I have a big bag of alfalfa cubes and I break them up into little bite size 'bales'.  They know I am a sucker and will spoil them!

This is the old saddle I was going to throw on Boom, and Wyoming started chewing on it.  Could it be he was trying to disassemble it before I could do any damage to Boom?  Hmmmmm....they do eat next to each other so they might have been discussing this for a while....

Dummy leggs go for a bareback ride today...

Dummy legs bite the dust and get a few paw marks on them....

Then Boom has the gumption to laugh at me after he kills the dummy legs!  Yeah, he is real funny!  I just hope this isn't a sign.  :-)

It took a while, but I finally got the saddle on Boom.  I don't have the girth, cinch, etc and could not find the extras....then I realized we had donated them!  Oh darn, I need to find a tack sale!  :-)  So for today he just wore it.  Of course not having any withers made it hard to stay on. 

I put the pad on for 'traction' and that seemed to help a little bit.  Okay, it really did not help at all...I just told myself it did. 

The thing kept falling off and let me tell you, he can care less!  This time I tried to hold it on not knowing how he would respond.  He still is unsure of my fast movements and reacts to them....he did great with this!  I was so pleased that this afternoons lesson was much better than this mornings.  This morning was not bad, just not as good as this.

Time for the dummy legs to ride the saddle!  Yee haw!

Dummy legs decided they wanted to ride in the double spot, so behind the saddle they went!  No worries mate!

All he did was walk around the pen and this is how quick it will slide off.  We never did canter with it on, but we did some trotting because I wanted him to get used to it falling off plus the dummy leggs bounce a lot.  OH!  When the dummy legs are on him at a trot bareback, they move back and forth like a but wiggle that follows the trot...back and forth!  He is going to have a dreamy trot to ride! 

YOWZY!!!!  The tarp is back!!!

Around the pen we go, and off comes the saddle pad dummy legs and tarp!










Sonic Boom is checking for casualties.....

What a cute nose Sonic Boom has!

This afternoon we worked on flexing.  Like most of them he is better on one side than the other.  I was very happy with him tonite!  He has been very nervous about me getting too close so I have been working a lot on reaching over and hugging my body to him, then I roll myself back and forth along his side. 

I also got up on my mounting bucket to stand next to him and he walked both directions around me and stood very close to me.  I leaned over him a bit then moved right off.  Oh how tempting it was to slide up on this wonderful back!  Check out his little light colored spot.  He has two more on the other side around his shoulder/neck area.  He was a stallion until he was 4 years old, so are they injured areas from battle?  Or are they just character marks he was born with?

This is what it will look like when I get on him!   For right now, this view is going to have to take care of my 'fix'.  We had a great night!

Fly spray is still an issue.  I have done the water in the bottle etc., and he just knows it is going to be a bad thing.  You know how you yell "OW!" before the needle touches you for a shot?  I was getting the lead line adjusted so I didn't get hung up if he moved away real quick and I moved my hand that was holding the bottle and he snorted, reared and turned to take off before I even did anything.  He was anticipating.  So tonite I did a lot of rubbing him with the bottle and walking away.  I did that several times along with letting him sniff it, then started spraying a couple squirts along his back and walking away.  He still doesn't like his chest and legs sprayed, but he relaxed for the rest of him, including up his neck to the poll!  We  made a lot of progress tonite.  He is coming along quite nicely if I do say so myself!  :-)

Chase the llama is guarding his pool.

It is late and I should be starting to unwind.  But I'm not....ha ha!  I am still wound for sound.  I hope everyone is having a great weekend so far!

Until later...Karen and Tripp who is also impressed with Sonic Boom!  That took a lot for him to admit.  :-)