Well, for the first time since the saddle rolling and concussion incident, we loped! It was way more nerve wracking than I thought it would be. But I didn't fall off, he didn't fall down, and it was actually kinda fun! He picked up the wrong lead a couple times and crossfired once, but mostly we did just fine. I'm sure I'm the one screwing him up there because he's been loping pretty nicely in the round pen, for the most part. I wish I knew why he is suddenly okay with loping after hating it and being totally uncoordinated earlier this year. The cold weather making him frisky is all I can come up with. Or maybe there was a physical issue that got better. I would have possibly thought it was this new trim, but he was doing fine that same day before the trim. I really don't see a difference in his way of going since then. Whatever it is, I'm glad he's moving better. Because I can learn to ride better but I'm not sure I could have made my horse quit being a klutz if he couldn't even lope on his own.

I think the next thing to work on is counting cadence at the trot and feeling when I need to cue for the lope so I'm not messing him up.

Oh, and he's mighty handsome in his new pad. I found my camera but the battery was dead. One of these days I'll get a picture.

Yesterday was a good horse day. I let Anchor have the day off and I hauled Tonka over to my sister's. It was cold and windy so we never did end up riding, although I did ride for a few minutes when I got home. But I did work with him in the round pen a bit. He had more energy than I've seen in him for a long time. Probably mostly the cold and wind getting to him, but I haven't ridden him in a month or so either. He was offering to lope! He hates to lope. So I took him up on his offer and he threw in a rude buck or two but he did lope nicely around quite a bit. Perhaps we'll be able to get to work on that under saddle soon.

On another excellent note, I got to watch someone else toil away trimming his hooves. It was wonderful! His sole gets so hard and it's a job I really wish I didn't have to do. Now I may not have to, because I think I may have finally found someone who does a good job. I'm excited. A friend of Amy's is working toward certification as a Natural Balance trimmer. She's new enough to it that she still cares about doing a good job, and her trim looks great. I love it. I have a few reservations about Natural Balance, mainly how they do their rocker and dress the hoof wall, but I'm willing to give it a try.

So I think I'm a saddle junkie. My sister bought a Wintec western saddle, and aside from the fact that I'd be embarassed to be seen riding in a synthetic saddle, I really like it! It's way more comfortable than my heavy, expensive, custom saddle. Tonka seemed to like it too. And she's wanting to possibly get rid of it. But three saddles for one horse - ridiculous! Ooh, but hey, Scout will need a saddle next year... I wonder if it would fit him. And then I'd have to get a job to feed my saddle habit.

Oh, and Tonka kicked my puppy yesterday! The dumb puppy insisted on playing behind him, and I was distracted by my sister, so I didn't catch it in time, and next thing I know - yipe yipe yipe yipe yipe! He was fine, although my sister said he did get launched a little ways. Hopefully he learned a lesson. I got after Tonka too, but I'm not sure he really got it.

12 degrees when I got up this morning. Frozen pipes. Dang it, I forgot to close the pumphouse door. Luckily the pipes don't burst when they freeze. We've got a heater on out there now.

"For what the horse does under compulsion... is done without understanding; and there is no beauty in it either, any more than if one should whip and spur a dancer."

Xenophon.

Tonka and I had an absolutely wonderful day yesterday, and a great one today as well, though our time today was short.

I've been knowing that I need to work on loping the boy, but haven't done it. Footing, laziness, aversion to arena work, etc... There are always excuses for doing nothing. But the Expo made me realize just how badly I've been allowing my horsemanship to stagnate. Gotta move forward... When we worked on loping before he was having trouble picking up the correct lead. I think it may have been mostly a saddle fit issue. Probably not helped by my riding. :) Yesterday we made a couple trips in either direction at the lope, and he did great. It's nice to have the safe footing and clear area of the arena to work in. I think I'm going to start trying to get over there 2-3 times a week. Hopefully he'll soon start to get some muscle tone back. He's not looking so hot lately.

Today I watched a video on clicker training. Alexandra Kurland's The Click that Teaches. It was basic but good. There are a couple really basic things I've done wrong when trying it in the past. So today I went out and found my clicker in the tack shed and tested it to see if it was clicking right (my son messed it up a little). Tonka headed eagerly in my direction and followed me along the fence to the gate. Think he remembered that sound? We did do some very basic preliminary work with it a year or more ago. Maybe he just really wanted something to do. But I think he probably remembered the clicker.

I filled my pockets with treats and haltered him, then worked on targeting. I didn't have a lot handy, so I grabbed an empty wormer tube. He didn't like that a lot, but he's not a freak about worming so I figured I wasn't setting him up for failure. He'd touch it, I'd click and treat. He got his targeting on that down pretty good, then we went to a lariat and I pointed to it and asked him to touch it, and he did several times. Then I put him away. He really didn't want to go back through that gate. Maybe I should have taken him for a walk. I wanted to keep it short and sweet though.

I sat down to break the treats into smaller pieces and of course I had a very interested audience. Cisco and Bella were dying for some goodies too. I decided to try it with Cisco, over the gate, because he is very pushy about treats. I used the end of the lariat as a target, a wormer tube would have been too hard for him. It took him a little longer, mainly because he was so focused on my pockets. I was also not using the voice command "touch" to ask him to touch it. I was just sticking it out there. He did a lot better when I added the voice command, and was consistently touching the lariat instead of mugging my pockets and hands. Good boy. Then I let Bella touch it once and clicked and treated her, but I'll have to get her out away from the other horses for a real session. I could work with Cisco with Bella there only because he wouldn't allow her to interfere. Bella would have gotten pushed away by Cisco if I tried to work with her over the gate.

Boy, sorry for the long and boring post. I better get back to doing more productive things now.