Mustang Saga

We had a busy day here today. The weather was wonderful! We did a bunch of outside work until lunch time. The kids really did a good job of helping out.

Later I got Scout and Tonka out, and Scout had his second ride. I feel like we made some progress in the movement department, but it wasn't much. He'd rather move just about any way but forward. Which isn't good when he's walking like a drunken sailor because he's not accustomed to the extra weight. He did do some walking though, and was starting to explore around the round pen a little more when we quit.

Here I had mounted on the off side and was just dropping my left hand to get settled. I look all stiff but really it's just a weird instant in time.

Here I was asking him to move his hip over and watching to make sure he didn't eat my saddle. I wasn't particularly wanting his head bent around like that, but he did move his hip over and that was what I was after.
He's a good boy. We just need to get past this sticky feet issue. And I wish he'd quit trying to get everything into his mouth. He's still such a baby.

After that Tonka and I went for a little ride. Liam climbed up on the round pen to take our picture before we went out the gate to work on some herd bound issues...
Tonka got his exercise trotting little circles near Scout, and then walking sedately far away, then taking a rest, then going back. x3. Then he was behaving himself, not rushing or pulling our circles out of shape. We went over by where John and Liam had a fire going, and I had Katia watch while I called out, "left, right, left, right," so I could be sure I was aware of which hind foot was leaving the ground. At first I was calling when it hit the ground, but then I adjusted my thinking and I had it right. We did a little exploring up the hill and in the trees. Interesting to note that he didn't try to rush down the steep hill. He was very balanced and took it slowly. I wonder if the saddle isn't hurting his shoulder. Then we called it a day. We finished better than we started, and that's always a good thing.