Trying crazy things

Don't ya hate it when you are in the moment, working with your horse, and in the back of your mind you're thinking "This would be a great blog entry!" and you come up with a snazzy title and great witty content and can't wait to blog about it... and then by the time you actually get to sit down in front of the computer... it's gone.

I knew I should've written it that night, haha!!

I am so incredibly busy you have no idea, work is GO GO GO right now.  We are gearing up for training 5 new Helpdesk associates, and it's my job to facilitate the training.  The goal to train all five in a week.  YIKES.  I'm recruiting as much help as I can from some of the more senior tenured Helpdesk agents, but still, it's going to be a lot of work! Yet, I AM SO EXCITED!! I love training and this is such a huge opportunity for me and will look awesome on a resume.  Then, on top of that I have a butt ton of work for school this week, 2 exams down, 1 to go, and a pretty substantial writing assignment due. Go me!

Anyway.

As far as horsey happenings go: The group is still absolutely saturated, we got another good rainstorm the other night which didn't help matters any.  It is as wet as can be.  I haven't ridden Cash in a good two weeks. Boo.  Since the round pen is super mucky as it sits in a low area my only option is the arena.  But, go figure, the only dry patch in the arena is up by the scary end. I lunged him over there on Saturday and that... didn't go well.  So, on Monday I decided to try something crazy.

I had been considering trying to ride him in the dry lot (which dries up faster than anywhere else), I've lunged him out there before, but trying to dodge the other horses can be tricky.  On a whim, after catching him (which he's still being super difficult about... bugger) I decided to just jog him in hand around the perimeter of the lot.  And, as I had figured might happen the pony started following us around at the trot, and then, when he decided that was boring took off bucking past us, this triggered two other horses to also scoot n' boot.  Cash got a little tight but really did a great job of staying with me.  Sooo... yeah, riding in the dry lot not an option!

BUT, since he was being so good about staying relaxed next to me I thought I'd try it in the arena. I figured, either this is going to be craziness and not work, or it's going to help with that scary end of the arena.

And... I think it worked!  I did it again yesterday evening with similar success.  The data is still preliminary, but I'll keep it at it for awhile and see what happens.  Not exactly your most traditional horse training technique, but if it works it works right?

Well hey there handsome

Lastly, the farrier was finally able to get out there yesterday to do Cash's feet after having to reschedule due to the flood, a week of playing phone tag later we finally were able to pick a time.  In the course of chatting with my farrier he asked where I got Cash from... I told him the name of the breeder and turns out that my farrier used to trim/shoe horses for him.  He said that, if this is the horse he's thinking of, that he "kicked the snot out of" the breeder one day.  I said that when I got Cash the breeder had told me about another horse he had who was a known kicker and he was hoping to find a cowboy to take on as a project.  At any rate, my farrier said he'd ask the breeder about it and if it is the same horse.  Sure would be interesting to find out!  Would also be kinda cool to find out if this farrier has indeed done my horse's feet before.  Small world, eh?