Bitless Stories and Then Some

September continues to fly by and the daylight is rapidly going with it! Linus has pretty much had what I call a "growing week"; time off from everything to just be a horse and grow. It's actually getting closer to 2 weeks since I have had him do much training. But, I have been out promoting and wearing my Curly clothing. I never go a day without having it spark conversation when I wear it.

I had a friend over last weekend learning how to train show cattle and learning about their conformation. He also has horses so once we were done with the heifers I took him over to help me with Linus. He met us at the gate as usual. Fred was extremely impressed at how much I could do with Linus without even putting the halter on him. He was interested in the bitless bridle so I put it on Linus and showed how the fitting went and so on and showed him how to initiate the horse to it. His comment "Wow, there isn't a thing you can't do with that horse, he's going to be so good for riding". That was a definite feel good comment. He said this after having Linus do circles each direction, whoa and back up with the bitless. Then I showed him how you could jump up and down and pat him all over while making a circle around him. He wants to breed his mare to a Curly stallion!

When we finished up with Linus we were going over to Fred's farm. He thought so Owen could see their goats, miniature horses and other animals but really I had been occupying Fred all morning so a surprise Birthday for him could be set up!! So, we didn't do anything with their horses that day.

Sunday I was over and we finally had a chance to put the bitless on his QH mare. They also have a Canadian x Belgian mare who is massive! We took turns riding both. You have to ride the draft mare bareback because they can't find a big enough saddle. So not only was it great to be riding again but it was great to be riding bareback again too!! Also, it was the first time I actually got to RIDE with my bitless bridle. I've had it Linus a dozen or so times but being a yearling I can't yet ride him. So that was a really cool experience. I did the ground initiation with her then got on and she responded beautifully. Fred was so amazed by it that he is now looking for one. We swapped horses (after I caught the other one....he is nervous of her and she knows it) and he was completely blown away by it. It was great to pass on an idea and have it turn out so well!!

I'm hoping to soon try Linus driving with the bitless. I haven't hitched him with it yet and I'm really curious to see how that goes. Today was a great day for him since they were doing a lot of work right beside his pasture. There was a big shovel and 2 dump trucks working. Lots of banging, beeping and excavating going on. And where is Linus? Hovering in the corner away from the noise??? Nope, standing right beside it!! The back door of the dump trucks make a HUGE BANG when they slam against the truck after being dumped. I was on my way out to his pasture and picked up the pace thinking this noise may have him running around but he was standing not far from it with his hind leg in rest position. What a guy!!