Day Two at Cherry Croft

No pictures of today but definitely headed towards success. Showed up after work, got attacked by dogs, love it. Mr. B was out in the outdoor snorting and flicking up his tail at the pigs in their mud pit. Ben came out of the tractor shed and told me to brush him up and meet him in the indoor. They mother and daughter team were in their again with their six-year old ex-race quarter horse. Gorgeous mare, beautiful mover.

Brushed up Brantley and Ben took him by the lead and right away started brushing him quickly up and down with his hand reviewing the exercises he introduced him before. B responded very well and relaxed quickly although his attention was stolen by the well-mannered eye-catching bay mare clotting around the other half of the arena. Ben got his attention by disengaging his hind-quarters and sending him into either direction until he relaxed his head and put his attention on the one with the rope.

They went over turn-n-go's from the ground and running the rope down to his flank and underside tightening it in place to reflect the feelings of the front and back cinch. He was a little tender around his hocks with the rope around them but he settled quickly and went along with the exercise without shutting down and relaxed, tilting his nose actually towards Ben's body. He sent him through the tarp curtain again and B's facial expression gave the "I got this" look. Loved it! He jogged through it as if to say, "Easy!" Then scooted under it. Still makes him a little nervous but it's progress!!!!

He worked with the saddle pad running it up and down his body and hitting his flank with it. This was easy for B. :) He slid it up his neck over his ears and was surprised it didn't make him crazy. That's my boy! He even started to drop his head responding to the pressure with a little help from Ben. After he did this on both sides and saw it wasn't a big deal for B he moved on moving his feet around again working on half circles up and down the arena (sexy mare had left by then).

Before he started throwing the saddle over him he worked on jumping and laying across his back. This step made me nervous but he was a lot better than I thought he would be. He was being difficult releasing his head and his neck. Ben wanted to keep his head bent naturally so that if he got scared he could spin in a circle rather than take off. Kate and I had done that the first few times that we got on him. He got better and better as Ben worked him, both sides. He started to swim his leg up the side of his hind-quarter but not up on his back yet. Little baby steps. He rubbed the opposite the he jumped up on and down on his flank which he responded to very well. You could tell he was tense but he wasn't shaking as badly as I thought. Yay! Round pen tomorrow!

Ended with working on throwing the saddle which was an ease. Let him hang in the indoor while we talked shop and put him in his stall.

Let's hope tomorrow is just as successful!