Working on the lunge line and some recaps

     One of my favorite things about Jellybean is when she nickers at me when I drive up. She sees my little green car and calls at me. She also calls for me if I call out her name to bring her in from the pasture. Then she usually runs towards me. This is incredibly fulfilling.

Hey mom! Look over here!

    One a more focused note, Jellybean and I are sticking to the schedule. On Friday we completed a round pen session. Robert helped me lunge Jellybean and I rode her. We are still working very hard at understanding what it means when I kick/nudge her with my foot. She isn't learning this one too quickly. I'm hoping that repeated rides will help make the cue clear.

     Saturday was the Halloween playday, which I have already written about. Sunday we had another serious ride through the rainy farm land. The round pen was very wet, so I moved a little bit of dirt to encourage draining and got Jellybean dressed for our workout. We practiced what we already knew in the arena, then Robert stood on the ground and helped move Jellybean when she started trying to bite my foot instead of moving forward. We only did a little bit of trotting, since she was trying to cut the arena up to avoid the standing water.

     Monday was another work day for Jellybean. I put on her lunging clothes and we sloshed out to the large arena with the line and got ready to do some more work with the side reins. I am a little worried about over adjusting them and Jellybean revolting, so I have moved slowly with my adjustments. Turns out I have been worrying for nothing. The side reins only adjust so tight, and Jellybean is too small to feel any pressure from the tightest adjustment. Looks like I will be punching holes.

     I am going to ride her on Thursday I hope, unless the Halloween festivities take too long. Otherwise we will ride on Friday. Next week I hope to do some lunging over the trot poles and a couple of cross rails.

     In other news, we have been plagued by several obnoxious events which may have stolen Jellybean's breakfast a couple of days in a row. First we noticed that Jellybean's breakfast was being turned over in the aisle. Then a morning or two later, her grain was completely eaten! The next day she had no grain and minimal hay! This was getting obnoxious... then we saw her feed bin. WHICH WAS CHEWED THROUGH!

     We decided that the evil raccoons were trying to steal Jellybean's food, and then we found out some horses were not tucked in for the night and spent their evening eating everyone else's breakfast. We almost bought a game camera to see what was up, but it turns out we are going to instead catch the culprits. More on this story as it develops.