Mostly Settled

Saturday night I went straight out to the barn from work. I was supposed to teach a lesson but it was cancelled. So I had a bit of extra pony time for myself.

Cisco was up first. The night before I had put him loose in the arena, and for the first time since the move he was very chill and relaxed in there. I was hoping for a repeat performance so that I could start working him again. And happily he obliged. He only called out once on our way into the arena, and once inside was very relaxed. I chased him around for a few minutes then did some work with a whip teaching him to go forward like I will when riding.

Wonky stance behind. But standing still!

In the barn afterwards, he was very quiet and standing nicely. So I spent some time brushing his tail and pulled (by which I mean snipped with scissors) his mane. Then back out he went.

Phantom came in and I decided to just clean her up. When she wears a blanket, she poops and pees on her tail. Which is supposed to be white. And since her tail is full of pee, her back legs get full of pee. Grossness all round.

In summer her tail usually gets washed weekly. In winter I put it up since it is too hard to clean it in the cold. But it's not fair to her in summer since she needs it for flies.  She is used to being bathed.

And because she is such a rock star on the ground, she stood for half an hour, ground tied, on the cement pad at the end of the barn while I cleaned her tail and back legs. The only times she moved her legs were because of flies.

On Sunday I brought my mom out to babysit me (and be my 911 caller if needed) so that I could hop on Cisco. Since he had been so quiet the previous two nights I was hoping that he would be good to get going under saddle again. Well, he wasn't too bad, but he was definitely up more than I was hoping.  I did a bit of groundwork, then with the assistance of Pony Grandma, hopped into the saddle. I had been hoping to be let loose from a lead, but he was quite distracted, and we didn't have the brakes that we normally have, so I thought it best to stay tethered to Pony Grandma. But there was improvement with the steering - he was steering more from me instead of relying and following the ground person. And we definitely didn't have any problems with forward! (Note to self- don't be stupid - lunge first next time.)

The snip on Cisco's bottom lip. Makes him look pouty.

Then Phantom came in for a quick ride - quick as in short and also speedy! And I even remembered to pee first. While I had her inside, I didn't hear Cisco screaming for her from out in the field (Ned is away so it's just the two of them and the main herd again).

When I put her back out, he was nice and cool and hadn't been running, or even walking around the fenceline waiting for her. So it seems that they have mostly settled in.

Nope - not a hippopotamus. (And it was very hard to get this shot because anything presented under a pony nose must be edible!)