Meet Cricket!

Cricket is joining me for boot camp!

She is a 9 year old Arabian mare who was started for Western Pleasure (we hear), then worked as a Therapy Horse before trying her hand as a 4H horse for a delightful young girl.

They (Cricket and her girl) want to be competitive in 4H this year, so they have asked if I would confirm her basics.  I am honored!

One of those basics is loading in the trailer...  Which typically takes... A while... 



Who? ME??



I came along to help, and at the 40 minute mark, she finally walked onto the trailer breathing hard and dripping sweat...

I said, "Let's unload her and do it again a couple times..."

Typically, she only gets loaded when they have to be somewhere at a certain time, so at this point, the doors would have closed and she would have been on her way.

She walked right on twice more!!  I knew she could do it!

After an hour drive and a bit of grazing, I decided to put her on the trailer one more time "just for fun."

And she walked right on again!!

I praised her profusely and quit pressing my luck.

Unfortunately, she came out of the pasture with rain rot across her back.  Right.  Where. The. Saddle. Goes.

*sigh*

She didn't seem bothered by it during grooming, so I saddled up and warmed up on the lunge.  This horse, that takes an incredible amoung of coersion to get moving, couldn't stand still when I mounted.  I promised her that if she stood still, I would dismount and we could play more ground games instead.

She acquiesced, and we finished with some lunging over poles.

Iodine baths ensued!  What do you do while the iodine soaks for 20 minutes?

Hooray for long-lining!

I tried to focus on teaching her the basics of long-lining...

The inside hind is coming forward more!

Then I tried to get her a little more "through" her body.  She really would have rather visited with the neighbors...



how about we explore some bend and counter-bend?

She really prefers to live in counter-bend...

Time for my close up!

But, she is always ready to pose for a picture!

She's wickedly smart.  I think she has a ton of potential!!