Mud, Muck, and Puddles

It’s been kind of a sloggy week for everyone. It’s rained and snowed and melted and rained and the mud is deep and sticky and just nasty. Whisper doesn’t want to leave his pasture because he always slides the short distance to the road. So far he’s been really good about letting me know he doesn’t like it then sighing and doing as I asked. Having slid on ice and banged myself up a couple of years ago I imagine I know how it feels but I think he trusts me not to ask him to do anything that would hurt him. At least I hope so.

Whisper’s latest training session was on Monday. We added a bridle to the surcingle and tried to add the side reins. He continues to do well on his groundwork. He has no problem with the surcingle. A pair of chaps was tied to it so as to simulate legs and that didn’t bother him. He continued changing gaits when requested and moving nicely over the poles. When I stopped him and began flapping the chaps around and making noise with them, that bothered him briefly. However after the first jump he settled down fairly quickly. This is something that should be added to every session. Maybe an old pair of jeans would work – I’ll have to try it. To this mix was added a couple of exercises designed to get him used to the bit and yielding vertically. I think he already knows this. He drops his head with very little pressure and will sometimes leave it there. He’s had some practice at yielding laterally in a halter so the transition to the bridle was pretty smooth.

A word about tack. Nothing fits Whisper. I’ve tried 4 headstalls on him. The closest to fitting is Spice’s – it has a wider brow band than the others but is still tight. The throat strap is too short by inches. I just tucked that into his halter. It works for the current purposes but I wouldn’t ride him that way. The side reins were too short. I went to Big R looking for a longer set but they were closed for inventory. Then I thought I’d try making them. I probably could have but during the process discovered that by adding a clip to the cheek pieces from an old headstall the current set were long enough. Yay. Cost me $6. Note to Big R: It would be nice if you would post when you're closed for inventory on your website.

For the remainder of the week I took advantage of the muddy, puddly weather and we learned more about walking through water. For me this consisted of convincing Whisper that the water was ok to walk in. For Whisper it was more fun to see how much water he could throw at me. Those huge hooves make a mighty splash. Tomorrow we’ll go over all of his lessons and make sure he remembers everything. I think I’ll even get the tarp out and see how he reacts after a couple of weeks without seeing it. And, we’ll get some more pictures. That done he should be ready for his next training session on Monday.