Axel gets a gold star!

Tricia is busy getting ready for her wedding and other odds and ends so it was just me this weekend for riding. Everyone's feet are looking pretty ragged so we just took it easy. Axel didn't seem particularly happy about going for a ride but he didn't put up a fight. We wandered down to the creek and to the bridge as usual. I want to teach Axel to side pass so we can open gates and things without dismounting. I had previously tried to get Axel to walk up next to the fence so I could reach it but he'd never get close enough. Today I gave it another try and we were successful. I got him to walk up next to the fence and was able to open it without a problem. Tom's son had done some mowing so we wandered down next to the creek a bit to see how much he cut. Up in the woods the bugs were horrible so we ended up turning around half way in instead of doing the complete loop, it was pretty hot out anyway, a short ride was in order. Before heading back down I asked for a canter in the meadow to see what I could get. And what I got was a beautiful light canter from big ole Axel. I asked another time just to make sure it wasn't a fluke, and I got another nice canter. Yay for Axel! After that we headed back home. Just to press my luck when we crossed the bridge I attempted to get Axel to walk up next to the fence so I could grab the stretchy gate and hopefully close it. He walked right up where I needed him to grab the open gate but then he started wandering off. I was able to hang onto the gate and get him back in position to close it. At this point he was even taking one step at a time as I asked so we could get close enough for me to reach. Axel gets the gold star for the day!

I mucked out the trailer from our trip last week and ended up cleaning out the round pen. It had been open for a while and looked like the designated restroom. Stephanie is going to start working with Kiko and Kalani so I thought i'd be nice if the round pen was usable. Plus one of these days I might actually start working on the Parelli stuff with the boys.

After my little cleaning stint I decided to play a little bit with the blue tarp. I have only played with it once so it was interesting to see if the horses remembered. Kalani was still a bit afraid but got over that quite a bit faster than the last time (which was several months ago). He'd stand on it, bite it, walk around it, nose it. I think he played with the tarp for 15 minutes or more. Kiko played a little but wandered out to graze. I rubbed the tarp on Kalani folded up and then unfolded and eventually he was wearing it. Then I worked on Kiko a bit, she really didn't want it touching her when it wasn't her idea but after biting it a few times she let me put it on her back completely unfolded. Cody didn't care if I put it on him but it was taking away from his grazing time so he didn't stick around very long.