Wonderful Weekend

haltering on my knees!
wearing the tarp!
squared of with no halter! I will get a better pic!

standing on the tarp!! YAY!!
just a picture I liked from the interview. RAC shirt!

The email from Denise came through at a perfect time! Right before I was about to have a reporter from the Seaway News come out and do a story on Linus and the RAC Competition. The story will be in this upcoming Friday's edition. I will post the link for the story as I think it will be part of their online version. I can't wait for her to email me the pictures she took. I think she got some really great shots of Linus and I together. We had a great day. I cleaned him up, took him for a walk and not long after, she arrived for the story. I had done some prep and research the night before so I was ready for her! We also took a picture of one of Karalee's curly Curlies who is stabled right around the corner from me. Lisa, the reporter, couldn't believe it!! She thought I was kidding when I told her the body looked like it had been permed.

I attacked some of the challenges already too. I've had a lot of fun thinking of all of the new things I can get us to do together. And also of how I can adapt them to the groundwork portion. I love logging/blogging on here because I think by the end of May I will be able to look back and be pleasantly surprised at how far we have come!! I had a brief feel-good moment today when somebody was driving their 5 year old past our house (where I live, not the farm) He is a big gorgeous quarter-horse cross (Belgian, I suspect) and it was only his second time out. He did very well but it made me happy knowing that Linus has already overcome a lot of the things this horse was facing. I'm glad to be facing them now at less than 500lbs (ish) than a 1200lb fully grown horse!!

I love the task of making your horse stand square, I don't know why I hadn't thought of previously practicing this with Linus; it was a MAJOR part of my showmanship training with the beef cattle. I always like moving their feet with halter pressure for the judge rather than the show stick. It was faster, easier (if the animal was trained to do so) and really kept the the show animal on their toes listening to you. I was able to get Linus to square off using pressure on his nose and shoulder. (not wearing a halter) It was great!! It will become part of our regular routine.

I haltered and un-haltered him from my knees yesterday (the reporter even got to see me taking it off!!) I was nervous about trying this, you are in such a vulnerable position for being run over. But, I trusted Linus and was able to get it done!!

It was a horribly humid day today so I left it til evening to do anything with Linus. I had a small tarp that I had purchased long ago at the Dollar Store so I brought that out and unfolded it in front of Linus and rubbed his head and neck with it. He seemed to accept it. So I waved it around and dragged it around, which turned into a game. He thoroughly enjoyed trying to catch the tarp!! I thought this would be a great game to encourage him to "catch" it by standing on it. It worked!! He walked right onto it. Several times. Then I covered his body with it and while it worried him a bit more from there he soon figured out that it wasn't hurting him and accepted wearing it.

I have posted all of my pictures above, I usually end up spending a lot of time reloading the same pictures over and over...I have yet to find out where they disappear to when I am moving them! I am hoping to eventually get video too and get that posted. Most of the time I am alone so video is hard but I promise to try. My husband is very enthusiastic with helping me. He is why I have Linus, he is VERY allergic to pretty much everything. Linus is definitely proof that this breed is hypoallergenic.

I'm starting out the challenge month with some of the stuff I think I can pretty handily accomplish. I am nervous about, though looking forward too things like water crossing, the platform, bathing and a couple of others. These are things I know Linus isn't fond of. But all the more reason for us to conquer them!!! I am confident that we will, it might take the whole month but I am determined!! Even if it doesn't happen within competition time, it will happen by the end of the 2010 RAC.

Good luck everybody!!!!!!