After a long vacation in Arizona I am having fun readjusting to the cold Midwest, although I do lament the lack of snow. I’m not sure how Bear feels about it. Judging by how he’s been in the pasture lately, my guess is he could go either way.
Today they were all out with the cows, or perhaps I should say the cows were with them. But Bear was close to the gate and he couldn’t care less about cows. He was eager to be haltered and led inside.
Once tied he was his usual poke around self. He stuck his head into a new (to him) bucket, and almost walked all the way into the storage area in search of chopped hay. Bear does not need any additional dietary supplements, so he was left wanting.
As I groomed him I corrected these forward infractions, but as they got worse and not better we just went into the arena for some groundwork. We concentrated on simple circle work, leading, disengaging the hindquarters, and backing. Bear is so so at all of these. I think he knows them, the problem is he is a tad lazy (or phlegmatic if I want to be nicer about it) and he is dominant. As a result, I don’t think he takes me too seriously. It doesn’t help that I’ve been MIA for many weeks.
So as I embark on what should be my second year of equestrian living, I’ve got a lot of things to work on, assertiveness, remaining calm, posting the trot, and relaxing at the lope. Some of these are old, some of these are new, and I’m sure others will come up, too.