More trail practice

If the DOR thinks I am going anywhere near a bridge like the one in the photo she is nuts. I will follow her a lot of places, but it is my job to help protect our herd of two. If she thinks I would let her have us do such a silly thing, well she is not thinking-that is all I have to say!

Actually the DOR has no such adventures planned. I think she was just trying to show me that things could be a lot worse than what she has been asking me to do...thanks for that.

She has been making me deal with "underbrush" though. The DOR was watching a horse show on RFDTV, that always results in me having to do something new (somebody please delete that channel from her TV). In this show riders were racing their horses through obstacles on a trail located at some guys ranch. One of the horses in the race was a gelding who has worked cows and done barrel racing. He was doing really well until he went down a hill and some of the underbrush touched his legs...he had a big come-apart and went a bit silly. That got the DOR to thinking, "What would Jack do if that happened?" What would I do, what the heck do you think I would do...get my legs away from the horse eating bush as quick as possible. Turns out that was the wrong answer, I guess I am supposed to quietly pick my way through the brush...well now I know. The DOR had a pretty good idea that the brush might bother me because at a clinic, when I was nervous, a rope went across my hind legs and I just about launched to the moon. Now usually ropes don't bother me, but I was nervous and when I am nervous I don't think I just react. The DOR wants me to trust her enough to not be nervous regardless of what is happening. I think she should trust me enough to listen when I say get the heck out of Dodge, we are working on a good compromise.

The DOR put a bunch of orchard prunings in the pasture. She thinks that I should practice dealing with "underbrush" as often as possible. She halters me up and leads me across one of the branches. I avoid the small limbs and walk over the main branch, less work that way. The DOR says I did good, but she wants me to maneuver through the small limbs. She sends me again, I jump the limbs and take a look at her. She sends me again, I jump...she sends me again, I go around the end...she sends me again and I walk through the limbs as fast as I can. The next time she just has me touch my nose to the branch. That was boring so I pick the branch up and start shaking it. The DOR just smiles and tells me that I am a character. I am an appaloosa, I don't know what the breed character looks like but I am sure it doesn't have a bling bling butt like mine. The DOR gave me a bunch of scritches and turned me loose.

I went over and joined Harley Darling eating hay. Next thing I know the DOR is scattering branches around the water tub. What the heck! She says that I will have to walk through them to get a drink. That is what she thinks, I may just put the darn things up and move them around the pasture. I think I will scatter them to all four corners, that way she can get some exercise picking them up and putting them back. If I do it every time she puts them by the tub I can eventually train her not to put them there...this is going to be fun.

Enjoy your day and don't forget to hug your DOR