Great Afternoon

I finished work early today and after moving some more "about to calve" cows into the barn, I was able to work with Linus again. I love getting in some hours through the week because usually the majority of our time comes on the weekend. As you can see from the first picture, Linus was in quite a playful if not somewhat annoying mood today. He was searching out things to get into and looking for trouble! It all started when my Dad turned around a big, noisy steel hay wagon in the field beside where he was. It didn't startle him but he used it as an excuse to tear from end to end of his pasture bucking and farting. I thought this was pretty good since it would play him out a bit before I got to him - but I think it just added fuel to the fire.

He was actually a good boy once we got working though. He had his customary grooming first. I always start with that. I think it comes from my years of showing; I always started with the show cattle by grooming them first. It relaxes them and gets them ready to be worked, plus it helps me to see where the areas that need more or less during the fitting process are!

Linus and I worked again today on our "short work" and handling. He whoas so well now that he stops mid-step when I ask. But then I have to ask him to "stand up" by which I mean square up. But he does this now anyway on his own most of the time. He backs much easier now too. I actually was finally able to get a picture of the carrot stick rope swung right around his neck. He caught sight of Nessie over in the field while we were working and I took the chance to snap a quick picture of him. He doesn't care at all where you throw the rope and it can even wrap several times around his legs.

I took him over to the hay wagon that had been responsible for all the earlier noise and we practised our side-stepping. I was reading in some Parelli handbooks (thank you Lynn) that a good way to get them to side-step is while facing a fence or something similar. We did the length of the hay wagon in both directions. I don't think it would have won us any awards but the main part was he listened to me and gave it an excellent attempt and I was happy with that!!

Then we took a trip down to get the ad bag from the mailbox. Someone came around the corner in a pickup truck - obviously not used to doing the nice thing and slowing down for equine traffic or moving over for that matter. But she did laugh at Linus trying to investigate the adbag - or maybe she was laughing at me picking up the fliers he knocked out.....

He would not leave his lead rope alone today! It was the ultimate toy

Carrot stick wrapped twice around his neck.