Makin' My Day

What a beautiful weekend we had here in Eastern Ontario. After having a few frosts, we shot right back up into summer / T-Shirt weather. It was the most beautiful Thanksgiving weekend weather I think we have ever had. You would think that with this weather we would have hit the trails but we didn't. Linus is having quite a growth spurt right now so I didn't want to overdo it. As much as I love the rides we've recently been able to share I really want a long-term healthy partner so taking it easy is not at all hard to do where he is concerned. Instead, we had some really great groundwork sessions. As I already mentioned in a post, my husband did some groundwork with him. My nephew learned a few new things and had another bareback ride while we were hand-grazing the horses on the front lawn. It's so nice to see the happiness shine through when he is on Linus. Griffin was actually reminiscing of when we brought Linus home and how small he was. Then Dad added about how we stopped to check on him in the trailer and he was lying down munching hay...Linus was "unique" from the start.

In our groundwork, I swung the rope all over his body then all over the ground all around him. He gets bored with this now but he does stay in a "whoa" when I ask him to as I circle around him. Then I extended my arm with the training stick and swung the rope in big circles around his head then side to side then around his rump. He did his best to not get bored again! He backed when I asked him to before I could even flick the rope at him and then came to me when I stopped. It was really fun to play around with some old things that we had to work at before. It's nice to see progress and also see that he retained what he has learned!

I hope this photo publishes ok. It was taken on my phone and then I cropped it. I took it when I was playing in his pasture with him on the weekend. You can kind of see the fall colours of our bush in the background. It's much more vibrant than it looks. 

This is a metal sign that I bought in Massena, NY at a TSC Store. It reminded me so much of our Curly horse logo!! Kind of fitting that this horse doesn't have the curls since neither does Linus!

I unfortunately don't have any pictures, but I had an absolutely amazing sunset ride on Linus tonight. I used the bareback pad and bitless again. Again because of the growth, we only went for maybe 15 minutes. I know it was short but it was one of the most thrilling rides I've had on him. He is really starting to feel so big and powerful beneath me. At the same time though, he is very into me and I can tell he holds himself back. Tonight when Allie started racing around, he threw his head up and started like he was going to join in but when I told him to settle he did. My heart was pounding and it surprised me. I wasn't nervous but it was exciting. For so long people used to talk about "being the boss" with your horse. I know respect has to be there and we have that but I find lately more and more that it really feels like a partnership. I like that kind of relationship much better. Tonight we went the furthest we have yet away from Allie who stayed in their corral. We went all the way around the house and entire lawn. This is the first time I have taken him completely out of her sight while riding him. He was aware of it but he was really tuned in to me. I am really starting to prefer a bareback pad over a saddle!! Maybe I will get brave enough to try it on the trail one of these days! I'm really starting to feel like my handsome boy will look after me. I love him so much!!

I almost forgot to mention that I had my husband help me stick measure Linus this past weekend. He is 15hh! Out of curiosity I checked his rump height and that is 15.1hh!!

Donna & Linus (who continually makes my day!)

Lunenburg, ON