Trailer Loading Prelims!

Isn't he GORGEOUS!?---->

Saturday morning I went out and played with Tuff Tuff for awhile. Lee only has one day a week to sleep in, which is saturday, and sleeps till about 10. And I usually wake up at the time I have go to work, around 8. SO! I get so bored waiting on him. That morning I got dressed, left him a note, and Bowser and I bicycled (well I did, he didn't haha) out to the pasture. I finally got him a new halter and wanted to see how it fit. I got there at the PERFECT time. They had all just come up for water and were about to head back out, so I started calling him and he came up to the gate to see me. :)

Put his halter on and voila! It fit! I was kinda worried it might be too big, he has such a dainty head. But it did, up on the highest settings, haha. But at least he's in a full size horse halter now! Its a pretty leather one just like his mommies, although her is a few years old and is getting kinda nappy!

So I got him out of the gate without the other two following, always a good thing, and went up to the shed to get a lead rope and brush. Which was a little nerve wracking, seeing as I had to walk him right up to the door and let go of him for a few seconds to get each, but all went well and he didn't wander off!
Getting to the shed, we had to go through a skinny place between a bunch of 'junk' that Lee's father has in his yard, about wither high to him and there was about, oh, maybe a foot of clearance on each side of his body, and he didn't really think it was such a good idea to walk through there at first! Lol, but I reassured him and he said, okay mom if you say so! And went on through it, such a good boy.

I walked him over to the tree to tie him up (yes the same tree he broke his halter on, lol, though he was very well behaved this time) and by this time the other two horses had decided to leave him and I was a little worried he would act up like he did the last time. But I neednt have! He was a perfect gentleman. I brushed him a bit and took a few pictures. (you'll see lots of his cute little face this post) And then untied him to do a little in hand work.

I found some old boards for us to step over, and he did so good! I put three in a row and even though they were really flat and close to the ground he was careful with them and after a few tries he didn't touch a one! Then we did some trotting over them, and first time through he was clear, I was impressed, we've never done that before. But you would think we had been practicing it forever. I want to lunge him over some soon. I'll get vid! How cute will he look?? I can't wait to ride his cute little trot. GROW, GROW TUFF TUFF!!

Anyway, after that we walked around the whole yard looking for the pieces of plywood that had been taken of his 'foaling stall'. I wanted to start practicing walking on odd things, thus you see the reason for my title, to help him be more comfortable loading in the trailer. Speaking of, the little two horse Lee's dad bought and is redoing is coming along. We went over to see it and he had a sniff and chew, lol, and he had the funniest expression when we looked in the back, he was like, woah, whats in there? Kinda like last post looking in the truck windows. But he wasn't scared of it and didn't have a problem walking up to it. Good signs! I really like this method of trailer loading, it makes a lot of sense!

Anyway, couldn't find the plywood! (found out later they were in the old horse trailer, the other one, lol) And at that time we saw Lee coming up! He had finally woken up and came to find me. I handed Tuff to him so I could do a more thorough search for the plywood and told him what I had been doing, so then he wanted to do it with him, it was cute. He walked him over the wood and made him back up, etc. They did good together.

So I finally found something to use for stepping on practice, lol, although it was a bit smaller then
I wanted. I let Lee take him over first, I want him to feel like he's invovled. And he mostly just stepped over it, lol.

That pic to the left makes him look like he jumped it! LOL, I promise he didn't! I guess its just one of those awkward moments, its such a funny pic though. At times he did get stuck under that 'lip' where it didn't lay flat to the ground, that may have been what was going on.

So they did that a few times, and then I took him and I made him go really slow over it, a step at a time, so he couldn't avoid it.

At first he wanted to paw the heck out of it, which was fine with me, that means he was interested and testing it out. He was totally calm and cool about the whole thing and then walked right over it. We did it a few times and he was great. He tried to step to the side a few times, as you can see here, but I just pushed him back over and he was like okay.

So after that I did some work on his flexing to either side, something I haven't done in awhile. He did so good. I even did it from one side, not switching to either side of his body, so it was pulled across his back, he had no prob with it. I also usually clip the lead rope to each side of his halter, but I left it on the ring underneath his chin, again, no prob! Yeah! He was really reaching too, almost touching his belly! I was impressed to say the least. He is still better to the left so need more right work.
So! Lee videoed us when I first started him over the board, you'll see his pawing haha, its funny. Lee keeps asking me if its recording, no idea what he's talking about 'flashing' lol, so I'm like I have no idea! So just ignore us! Also, you might get a bit dizzy, Lee can't seem to hold his hand still, gah. Hey, I also just noticed at 56 seconds we do a pretty nice little bitty pivot, hehe.

(why do videos look so icky after uploading???)



And now I will leave you with the prettiest picture! Its my wallpaper at present, lol. Although I love the first one too. Hm, this one down here might be frame worthy! Too bad the top one has my sis in laws piece of junk rotting car in the background -_-.