"The most important thing we can do for our horses is to educate ourselves the best we can on principles & factors of health & soundness." -loosie on Horseforum.com

Saturday, April 9, 2011

April Update

Haven't been on in forever!!

The farrier was a no-go, due to the fact that he is TERRIFIED of farriers...go figure. I now have to find either a new farrier, or some sort of like Sho-quiet or somthing to make him calm for the visit. Until then, he is doing fine. So fine, in fact, I felt confident enough to take him on a ride yesterday!!

I have officially decided that the art of "swirls" is true...the swirl or cowlick on Tex's forehead suggests that he has a very wide range of awareness, but a lack of focus. In otherwords, he's smart, but is essentially ADD. This fits him perfectly!! When we were riding, he was having a hard time focussing, but learned my cues very fast. He did three things yesterday that impressed me:

1) He learned my cues quickly
2) He wouldn't go into the flag pond when I asked him, but was easily led by rope into it and did not fight like Sam would have done. This tells me he is willing and trusting.
3)  He went to take off, and did, into a full out thoroughbred run, but instead of not being able to keep him under control, I was able to very quickly collect him into a nice canter. This would have been much more difficult on Emma. I now believe I could control him in an emergency.

Here are the pictures: