Three days, two horses, one tarp...along with my musings.

Along with some days off together, came some horsey training time. As usual, it was interesting.

Day 1: Chester is in the round pen. I decide to go get the $5 tarp I got at Atwood's out and see what happens. History tidbit - every other time I have gotten a tarp or plastic substance around Chester it has produced an amazing explosion. Nothing new for today. I took the tarp out of the bag while standing in the middle of the round pen and Chester took off at a dead run as if hungry mountain lions had spotted him. Sigh. I reined Chester into me with the lunge line with my left hand and held the tarp with my right hand. After ten minutes or so of circles he let me sack him out on both shoulders.Next is Rascal. She took the tarp in stride. I sacked her out and while she was obviously nervous, she never bolted. Deciding to push her, I put the tarp on the ground and asked her to put both front feet on it. This produced a couple of snorts, but nothing hairy happened. After this non-reaction from Rascal I decided that if sweet Chester wanted to eat, he could eat off the tarp. He took about a half hour to accomplish this task, but in the end he stood on the tarp rather nervously, and ate.
Day 2: Chester is meeting the big blue monster again, after he's already eaten on it again today. I was frankly irritated at his reaction (I'm human, OK) so I sacked him out until he put his head down and then asked for him to place both front feet on the tarp - which he did- finally.
Rascal walks over the tarp today, with all four feet touching it. The first time, she walked over, then did a little hop-around to see if it was coming to eat her. The second time, it was no big deal.
Day 3: Jeez Chester, you just ate off it again. I sacked him out and asked him to walk completely over the tarp. He hopped around, jumped over, shimmied, jigged, and planted his feet and refused to move forward. Uh-huh. Listen Chester, the kids are in school and it's only 9am, I've got all day to mess around here so let's just get it done. So, he did. I was super-proud of him too! Rascal wears the tarp today. She also walked over it and yawned.

Some other interesting tidbits: Patience had her first Washington Co Saddle Club Meeting this week (the boys are signed up now too, they can be clover-leafs till they're 9). Suffice to say that it was interesting. The meeting didn't start on time, but it was very educational for the young horsey-mind. We also discovered that you don't even have to OWN a horse to be in the club (however, some helpful mom's are willing to sell you a MINT of a horse AND give lessons - snort) and after some careful deliberation, Patience thought that Rascal should be great for now - thank goodness. I was a little put out at the club leader though, after the meeting part was over and they elected the next year's officers, she had everyone say their name and if they had a horse and about their horse etc... When Patience's turn came she said her name and Rascal and stated that she shows Sport Horse In Hand. The leader responded "so you do speed events?" No, Sport Horse, In Hand. This puzzled the leader and she said "do you ride her?" No, not yet. Leader: "She's eight years old and you can't ride her?" At this point everyone was staring at Patience and she looked like she wanted to crawl in a hole. Dang it, I am trying to get my daughter out of her shell and at this point your fifty-something ass is not helping! I realize, that taking an eight year old mare who's been out to pasture for six, was not the best idea. I get it, and I'm frustrated with myself, but Patience has shown her at halter and learned to groom and clean feet and sing to the horse - and that dang horse has boosted her confidence so much she wanted to join 4-H AND play basketball this year, so move along to the next person please! They finally moved it along, and after the meeting was over Patience decided that 4-H was indeed a wonderful idea and she can't wait till the next meeting.
Anyway, those are my random musings for today!