As most of you know, I've started riding Lily, and things have been going great. Yesterday I took her on our first trail ride. There were 12 people on the ride, and we were just riding all over a 300 acre tract of land that someone nearby owns. The weather was perfect for us, and I had a great time. As we crossed muddy creeks, wound through dense trees, and just rode, I was so impressed with my cold blooded horse. :) I got to see quite a few incidents where a horse didn't want to do something and would act up, or incidents where a horse was just way to energetic and was misbehaving (one of these events ended in Lily getting kicked). With Lily, she was soooo easy. I just made sure her nose was pointed where I wanted her to go, and she went there. It was great. At first she was a little leery of having 12 other horses around, but after a few hours of riding, she had gotten quite used to it. Once again I was reminded of how much I love my Lily, and I can't wait to ride again.
In the afternoon I had to go help a friend with cows, so I just brought Lily along. She more or less just hung around where I was for the day. So this mean she was gone from the pasture all day.
When I got home in the evening, a very spunky and excited Benjamin was running laps around the truck and trailer. As I opened the trailer and Lily stepped out, he came a running over to greet her. I got very uneasy about this, because if Lily decided to lay into him, I didn't want to be in the middle of it. Lily stood with me and I prepared for the worst. I was quite surprised. Ben ran till he was about a foot away, then he eased his nose in right against hers. Then he lifted his head, and laid it down on hers (so the bottom of his jaw was resting on the top ridge of Lily's nose. Then he started clicking his teeth like crazy. I was standing a few feet away because I just knew Lily was going to let him have it. She didn't though. Lily stood still and wasn't mean to him at all. So I walked up, untied her halter, and then those two trotted off to the pasture. It was pretty cool. I guess Ben and Lily are better friends then I thought. :) (Either that or Lily just loved having someone appreciate that she was home. :) lol )
Oh ... I forgot to mention something I learned the other day. I got to see first hand why lunging and working ground manners on a horse is soooo important. 2 nights ago I had the trailer at my house, so I thought I would work with Ben on loading/unloading from a trailer. Ben loads fine, and if you can turn him around in the trailer, he will unload fine if walking forward out of it. Backing out however, was where we ran into trouble. He would back fine until one of his rear hooves would drop off the trailer. Then he would panic, and jump right back in. We did this over and over, and he was not having it. The problem we were having, is that Ben was thinking on his own. He was not doing what I said just because I said so. Ideally, he should do something because I said so, and he will trust that I will not let him get hurt. I guess we are not to that level yet. So ... we lunged for the next hour. This is the first time I've seen this correlation for myself. I know this kind of story is basic horse training for most here, but I just thought I would share for those who may benefit from it. I'm going to lunge him again today, and then we'll try the trailer again. I'm hoping that once I get his mind in a place where he is doing what I ask, that he will trust me more backing out of that trailer.
Hope everyone is doing well, and THANKS for all the raindances!!!
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