Smooth, Straight, Male

A recent conversation between Lynn Downer and I highlighted how I benefited from Linus being a "smooth, straight male". The reference had me laughing...it sounds like I'm replying to a personal ad!!

Yet another light week for Linus and I..we don't have too many of those throughout the course of the year and when we do it is almost always not occurring by our own choosing!!! We did get in some quality log time this week though and of course just some good ole quality time.

After reading the posts about yielding to pressure I realised I hadn't done this with Linus for some time. So, we spent a little bit of time refreshing. The reason why I said little bit is because he picked it up so fast! Sometimes he totally steals my thunder when I think I might be about to teach him something. I'm waiting for the wonderful moment of it "clicking" for him and it doesn't happen because he already knows what I want and does it. Which of course is great but leaves me going "show off". I made sure when applying pressure to release as soon as he gave a bit and caught on very quickly to this. He yielded all four quarters and just for fun I pushed his rump from behind on either side of his tail. He gave me an "Oh come on, really"? look but complied!

He has continued to treat me with kid gloves when I turn him out and has been walking out for his turnout like a dream with his head by my shoulder. We're supposed to have warmer weather this weekend so I am hoping to get him out again for some more serious work. I have been accumulating a collection to put together an obstacle course for him but so far the weather hasn't cooperated enough for us to do it. I have small cones, a platform, a horse blanket, a tarp and plans to gather some other things as well.

I was chuckling to myself over the mane care comments from previous posts. Linus, as you know is smooth coated but his mane and tail are SOO thick!! For me, regular brushing with a stiff body brush works best. His mane is finally getting to a nice length from me butchering it off last year! I think it will be a good length for this summer but next summer will require "thinning" only.

I will be sure to post pictures if we can get out and up to anything this afternoon!!