He's no Fool!

I have never wished I had a camera with me as much as I did today! Not even my phone was on me. My nephew was helping me do the chores a bit today. He's not too friendly towards manure; be it bovine or equine! He was pretty good once he put his boots on though. He helped me treat a steer and then he ran to get some apples for the horses while I got their feed ready and got out their halters to put them on the front pasture for a while. After haltering them I tossed the lead rope (Linus) to Griffin and walked past him with Allie. I told him if he got scared to just drop the rope, Linus would be fine. Griffin walked him out to the front pasture with an apple in one hand, the lead rope in the other. Linus plodded along behind him with his head hung lower than I've ever seen it if it's not to be eating!! It was the most adorable sight. Getting Griffin to do these little things with Linus is such a confidence builder for him. Linus is perfect for it too because he is for whatever reason, crazy about kids! He just loves them. He knows how to behave extra careful around them. But let's say I get one of my friends over and ask them to help me Linus will test them first to see how much he can or can't get away with. Like my title says, he is no fool!

Griffin is having a surprise Birthday party at the farm next weekend and I'm hoping to give him a cart ride. He's excited for the ride but doesn't know about the party. He rode Linus again a bit yesterday. He's doing very well . They both are.

I'm in the process of adding a piece of padding to the noseband of my hackamore. I find it too stiff and it seems to be leaving a bump on his nose. He's not at all a hard horse to ride and doesn't need to become sore from it. So I've extended the chin strap and we're working on a piece of padding for the noseband. He goes so well under saddle without a bit I would like to keep it that way. So far we've been able to keep the bit for driving and none for riding.

I have had a lot of comments about him again recently (good timing too!). Working on the mail route allows me to pretty much wear what I want (within reason...no jammies!) so I've been wearing RAC clothes every day. Thank goodness we've had some cool mornings and I can wear my sweater! It did lead to someone telling me they liked my "team". She had seen me out driving Linus before and thought I had acquired Allie to make a matched team for driving. So naturally, I explained that while they are close in colour they are not related and then got into the Curly breed. Is there a more intriguing breed of horse?

I took the time while at a horse pull too to talk to some of the teamsters. Many of you know that Linus has Belgian in him. I noticed quite a few of the Belgians had the same sort of marking as what Linus has on his hip. (Ben D'Or spot) I asked if it was common in the breed and one helper hadn't even noticed it on his team! I did have one breeder tell me though that it is common among Belgians and he enjoyed hearing about Linus. He wasn't sure on the origins of that spot on Belgians though. The spot has also shown up in his Curly relatives too. But seeing it on the Belgians made me curious.