Bareback again!

Diamond is very patiently allowing me to ride him bareback.  I say this because even though I am light, I am bony.  I think he would prefer if I had a bareback pad on him to give us each a little cushioning.  Friday morning was fun though!  We did a bit more trotting than Thursday.  However, Friday evening....I went to feed Diamond and in his slow feeder was a muskrat!  Do we have muskrats in Arizona?  I don't know but he was definitely a muskrat.  Poor lil guy must had crawled up the side and accidentally fell in.  Luckily, my dad made the feeder with a removable bottom so I simply had to lift one corner and out the bottom he slid.  Diamond seemed unfazed by the rodent so maybe they are friends lol

Today we just did a nice 2 mile walk and I got a few great photos.  I am hoping to get up early tomorrow so we can do some riding in the arena.

Researching senior horse care

Yesterday I did some more research on senior care.  There is always talk of how important regular exercise is and I couldn't agree more.  I really like the idea of timing our warm ups to be sure he is getting enough exercise per day.  This morning, I had him walk in the round pen for 15 minutes and then trot for 5 minutes.  I could tell he was feeling a bit stiff in the beginning but loosened up nicely after the 5 minutes of trotting began.  Without halter or lunge line, he was trotting in a tight circle around me, collected and calmly with his head down.  I hope tomorrow I can get out to the stables early enough to warm him up and do some riding in the arena.  The mosquitoes are absolutely taking over the trails so I think I'll stick closer to home.

Ropes and a noodle

The title pretty much says it all.  This morning I tied Diamond to the hitching post and cleaned his feet as he touched the rope, waiting for treats.  Afterwards we went to the round pen and warmed up his body walking and trotting.  He now only gets to come in to me once his head is lowered as he trots around.  I hope this will translate to when I'm in the saddle but we shall see.  Every day he seems calmer and more confident that the noodle will not hurt him.  Today he just wanted to touch it with his lips over and over until I ran out of treats.  He picks things up so quickly I just wish he would retain them better.  Perhaps it is his age..

Good karma

Last night, I saved a bird.  I arrived at the stables to give Diamond his dinner, as always, but this evening I thought I would let him walk around one of the turn outs while I get his stall ready.  So out we went to the back turn out.  Now each of these turn outs has a water bucket and I wanted to be sure that the water was clean and there was enough for him to drink while he was waiting.  As I began to peer into the water bucket, something began to peer back.  Lo and behold, a small black bird was sitting at the bottom with water up to his chest.  After regaining my composure, I proceeded to yell at the bird, "Get out! Shoo! Fly away!" but try as he might, he could not fly out of the bucket.  He even opened his wings a bit to say, "I'm trying! I can't!"  "No, Cassie," I thought to myself, "you are not going to pick up this bird with your hands."  But what else could I do?  I had to get him out and the bucket itself was secured to the fence.  In my hands I held Diamond's halter and lead rope.  Holding both ends of the rope, I created a makeshift swing.  As I lowered the "swing" down to the bird I thought, "Don't you dare fly up after you said you couldn't and scare the living crap out of me!"  As I lowered it down to his chest, I kid you not, he gently put his feet onto the swing.  I slowly lifted the swing up.  Once he could see over the bucket he hopped down, gave me a chirp, and ran away.  "You're welcome!" I called out after him. 

Diamond was, of course, oblivious to all of this.  All he cared about was rolling in the dirt. 

This morning we walked over the post again and Diamond touched the rope as much as possible to get as many treats as possible.  I am glad he is becoming less and less afraid.  We also did some work in the round pen with the noodle.  He decided he would lift up his right front leg and paw at the noodle causing it to roll into him.  Instead of freaking out, he was calm and looked to me for a treat for touching the noodle.  

Tomorrow I hope to do the same routine.