Am I a good girl? YES, you are!

Yes, you ARE a GOOD GIRL!

Scout's progress

I am very pleased with Scout's progress! She no longer barges through an open gate and will wait quietly for the HUMAN to go first! WOW! Big step forward! She got some lungeing yesterday and she is now backing up easily. She definitely has an "off" side and we will work on that. I have to drive to school today and "purge" the JUNK in my class room, but I'll work with her on Thursday. It was VERY humid yesterday and hot, too, so it was awful, even up in the mountains. (I won't EVEN talk about how awful it was here in the desert yesterday!!!) Phew. I can handle the dry heat, but, when you mix in humidity...it just zaps the moisture right out of you! We have a couple more days of humidity, then it should dry out for a few days. The temps are still with us (109 degrees), but it will be a DRY heat!

Half of a clean horse!!!!

Yes, here's Cali...half of her was still clean after she rolled. I've noticed that the only horse of mine that goes completely over when they roll is...Scout! The others will do one side, then the other, or in the case of Cali, be content with just one side covered with dirt! Do your horses roll ALL the way over?

Cali's bath

Now that Cali is in her own corral and I don't constantly have to deal with "La Diabla" (Scout), I can take Cali out every day for a walk and some training. Yesterday I let her out in the arena, just to stretch her legs, because, frankly, I don't even rememer the last time she was there. She and Scout had been together in a large corral, which had plenty of room for them to run around in, but I hadn't taken Cali out to the arena for a while. She leads very well (she's so ho-hum!) and she is so calm! I turned her loose and she just stood there, so I had to "shoo" her off! She enjoyed her time in the arena and ate a lot of weeds! Then I thought, "Hmmm...it's a nice, warm morning, I should give her a bath!" and I took her up to the wash rack and tied her. She's been taught to "stay" and she never moved, not even when I had to walk down and get the shampoo! GOOD GIRL! Cali LOVES water (and attention!) and she really seemed to enjoy her bath. I saw that she had a few cuts on her chest (probably from her new corral) and I washed those out. I put SWAT all over her face and then led her back to the arena because I knew she would roll. So, here are photos of Cali after her bath, enjoying another romp in the arena. She so enjoys simple things...a bath...a romp in the arena...making the boys look at her! She's a silly girl! I dearly love her!

Look, ma! A stranger~ Sunni and Molly share some time together~

Both Cathy, the ranch owner, and I noticed that we are the only ones to really work with our horses and we both decided that it would be good for them to have other people just come up and mess with them, take them out, and even work with them. So, last week, when my good friend Molly came up with me, I asked her to work with Sunni in the arena. Now, Sunni is the most skittish of all our horses, but Molly has a very relaxed demeanor. She has a little filly that she has trained by herself and she's very horse-knowlegeable. Molly really hadn't interacted with Sunni much, except to stop by and give him scratches, and I was eager to see how he would react, especially since I'd spent a lot of time this summer desensitizing him. Remember, he stood still for the farrier, but didn't like the vet or getting his shots and he acted like...a real JERK for the vet!...sigh... So, here's the story of Sunni and Molly! THANK YOU so much, Molly, for doing this for me! It was a good lesson for Sunni and I feel like he made a lot of progress. Top photo: Look, Ma, a STRANGER! Next: Hmmm...she doesn't look so bad. Maybe I'll take a closer look! Hey, she's pretty nice! Look, ma! I survived! And finally, "Phew...now I can run and run and run!"

Scout gets more practice

So, yesterday my friend Molly came up with me to stop and visit with the horses and then we headed over to my cousin's for lunch. I took Scout out and she did fairly well with that. I only had to remind her once to not barge ahead! I took her in and out of the cones in the arena and she followed nicely. It's good to see that she is making progress. It isn't that she's bad...she just doesn't know what to do! Now that I know what to do with her, that will make it easier for me to be consistent with her.

More of Scout's lesson

This way, Scout! No, not ON me! By me! Back, back! Here we go! Ahhhh....that's a good girl! Scout's lesson continued and she learned that she cannot be her usual pushy self! I'm driving up this morning with my friend Molly and I'll work with her and hopefully she will remember her lesson!