The Name of the Game

Yesterday my husband pointed out that he had spent a lot of time making me a bull and I had not even  bothered to take it up to the ring. Clearly he was rankled.

Now in my defence, it was quite tippy, falling over at the lightest breeze. When he got that sorted I was in full show mode and wasn't putting anything in the ring to clutter things up. Add to that Irish's reaction when he first saw the newest member of the farm and it was easier to put it off. The first time Irish saw the bull outside the barn he lost his ever loving mind and tried to run through the fence. Fortunately it was on and he didn't but there was a lot of tense blowing and tail flagging for quite a while every time he spied it.

But he did have a point. And one of my goals for this year was to do more 'fun' things.  So today I set up a little obstacle course:

It was a pretty simple set up and I wanted to make sure that I was leaving room to practice circles and leg yields. The bull was just there for exposure- I don't have a ring or anything on it yet. 

Julia joined me and we made sure that Irish had a chance to be introduced to the bull (he needs a name I think. Any ideas?). 

Irish: Hey look, he's harmless! 

It was fun to play around with the various cones, canter poles, etc. Carmen was great with all of it. Which I expected because she enjoys these sorts of things. We would work on transitions, leg yields etc and then go and do one of the tasks. We struggled with the canter poles but Julia reminded me to look up and not at the poles and everything go better after that. 

Carmen: well hello there

I was super impressed with her at the gate. I've been working on each step, making sure she was relaxed and understood the questions. She has a tendency to rush a gate but not today. We were able to do it forward and backing through it. 

After we played for a while in the ring we went on a hack through the woods. Carmen led pretty much the whole way, walking out with confidence (although keeping an eye on possible dangers). We usually trot the hill back up to the barn and she led there as well. 

Guinness came along as well. You can see him in the photos and videos above. He's assigned himself the job of supervisor. All he needs is a clipboard and safety vest.  Carmen seems to be fine with him as well. This has become one of my favourite photos of the three of us: 

The Three Muskateers (screen shot from a video)