Day 4/100

EHW (DVM at work) mentioned me renting his house in Montana again... *drools*

Quick update on Mitch, he's doing very well on his expensive Royal Canin SO diet (wet and dry). No more litter box issues and he's actually not minding getting stuck in the house. He's more playful with me and the dog as well as himself (running up and down the stairs like a crazy crack kitty). When he was a kitten he used to sit and watch TV with me. I'm not saying lay by my side and sleep while I watch TV, I'm saying actually watch it. Like right now? He's got one paw on the keyboard and staring at the screen while I type... Of course I got to take a picture and he moves to the coffee table to creepily watch me instead.

Onto other things, they started a biggest loser competition at my work. It's 16 weeks and $20... I feel like that's kind of ridiculous but of course I signed up anyway. I did it mainly for a friend at work to support her, but I guess maybe it'll help get me motivated as well. Glad it's longer than it was last time they did it because a few contestants definitely crash dieted and binged on laxatives. That's attractive!

So I forgot to mention that Deb asked if I would be interested in going to Albany for a weekend with her a couple other horse friends. Why I asked? BECAUSE SHE GOT TICKETS FOR CLINTON ANDERSON AND WANTS TO TAKE ME! MMEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AAAAHHHHH!!!!!

I base a lot of stuff of what I do on the ground with things that he does. I definitely mix a lot of other trainers in their too to work on my concepts but he kind of was the first trainer to teach me something different than what I was doing, and it worked. To see him "in person" and live? I'm all for it.

So today was Day 4 out of 100! We're doing it. I sent him around the ring a bit today before getting on to see how he was feeling. I had a pretty good brain working with me so I got on pretty much right away. He's been keeping his head up and little scooty lately but that's my fault, I really let him go over the holidays (bad mom). We started off pretty high but I let him really use his stride and trot out. As I said with one of my goes, I really want to work on lateral flexion with him. We did some small circles and serpentines like before and he started to come back to me. 

Once I felt like we had a nice warm up and kissed for a lope and I just dropped the reins over the horn and let him figure it out. His head went straight down and he felt great, very relaxed. It's been a while since we've had a non-racey canter but it's hard to let him go with other horses in the ring, especially some main barn girls (my lack of contact sometimes makes them nervous). The more he relaxed the better I felt to start working him on the fence line. I slowed him down to a trot, sat, turned his nose to the fence, and sent him in the other direction at the trot, then picked up a lope. I did this a few times with him until I felt him really start to bend and be supple, then asked him to pick up a lope right away coming out of the bend. They're like little rollbacks but without the backing up. 

You can check out his YouTube channel on the tab above. 

There's a video of us starting the fence work a few months ago. Hopefully will get some updated video soon.

Nat asked me to play with Comic again this AM and I worked him on the ground a little. He was hot because the Wild Grey was in the arena bolted around in circles. Poor pony... the Grey I mean. Anyway, this is something that we've been working on with Comic. Getting him to focus on Nat vs. kicking out and getting wild when there are horses in the ring OTHER than the Bay Brigade. He's getting better at standing and being calm, now it's just working at the same time as the other horses. So I let him buck and kick and flail on the line until it looked like he was getting tired... Then just made him keep going. He started licking, chewing, blinking, dropping his head, rounding out. What a good boy! Niall was giving the Grey a lesson, but I asked if I could do a quick cool out ride and he had no problem with it. I got on and had him do a working walk, getting him onto the bit. He was so quiet, we did a bit of a trot and some direction changes. I was all amped to try a canter on him but A came in with Lucy and the BO was coming in with her stud, so I left it on a good note. 

Can't wait to see how he is for Nat tomorrow!