Christmas is Coming....

Who is this lovely lady gracing the pages of the blog again? It's Abby, Roo's mom. She saw a picture of Roo trying to be a reindeer and had to try it on her own. She, however, has a red nose too!

I'm sure, if she's flying with Santa, she can pull alot more toys than those skinny reindeer can! LOL...

I can't believe how time flies. Christmas has kept us all busy here and in between preparations, Roo and I have been working.

We got a round of applause and a hat's off from a trainer the other day as I snuck into the field and spied Roo way down by the fenceline. I simple squatted and held out my hand and Roo dropped his head and walked slowly all the way up to me. This trainer told me he had never seen anyone do that before, that most people are simply concerned about riding the horse and never teach it anything else. Well, now me. Roo has this down pat. This trick is the envy of everyone at the barn!

I started out in the field with just having him come to me and I put his halter on, walk him for a minute in the field, unhalter him and let him go back to what he was doing. He thinks this is a lovely game. It's different from what I do when I want to bring him in. When I want to bring him in, I look for him in the field and I walk right to him (I go to him and not make him come to me) and put his halter on, and he knows the difference.

We also worked alot more on free lunging and Roo now only goes in a circle around me and waits for directional change cues. So he has come a very long way there. We had unseasonably warm weather all last week and it is now going back to cold again starting tomorrow night, so I will be putting his light blanket back on him. His coat is so thick, I won't need to add much more. Just something as a wind break. He is very good with his blanket outside, and never damages it.

We just love Roo and we are happy to be spending our first Christmas with him!

Reindeer Dreams

Uh oh...looks like somebody wants to be a reindeer? (Look closely between Roo's ears.) It's that time of year! Our first low of 15 - 20 degrees tonight, so Roo got his blanket reattached to him.

In the photo if you look over my right shoulder (your left) you will see Roo's stall is decorated. I'll get a picture of that too at a later date.

Over the left side of Roo's haunch (your right) off in the background, that is Eagle's stall decorated. At least I'm way ahead of the decoration game with the horses. Who knows when I will get the house done?????

I got to test STAND in the field this weekend in a situation where I was leading that flirty mare Belle up from her paddock through the four muskateers gelding field (Roo, Sin, Andy, Sam). Of course on my way back up the paddock toward the gate, Roo headed at a mighty prance toward me. I stepped away from Belle and yelled STAND and put up my hand signal. Well, he stopped. And he stood. And if I didn't have Belle, I would have run up to him and given him lots of praise, because I never expected it would work. It was just reflex on my part, and good listening and paying attention skills on his! LOLOL...

When it works in the field, that is when you know you have made a mighty good and long-lasting impression!

Not to be outdone, Eagle wants to be a reindeer too. So his photo ends tonight's blog. Eagle often visits Roo through the stall bars when I'm grooming him. They seem to like each other. Eagle is head honcho in his field, so if I ever bring both of them home, I think they will get along nicely.