Ariat

Today I got to play with a new horse Ariat. He came to me before I opened the gate. I was told he can be very emotional so I was mentally prepared for anything. As we started walking towards the obstacle course arena I asked him to stay with me and he was much more interested in the grass and didn't care one bit about my carrot stick hitting the ground next to him and then tagging him. So to get him there it took some time lol. Walking by the trailers was the only time I felt him getting emotional and scared. I let him smell it his curiosity was fighting his fear and then he ran the other direction. In the obstacle course he wanted to check everything out his ears up and ready to play. He has a very high play drive. He loves walking himself places by holding the rope and thinking he's pulling me. It took some time for him to realize that I was going to do things very differently. But as soon as he realized his true self came out. It was amazing to watch the change so quickly. Horsenality was fairly easy to figure out (LBE) so that made playing really fun and easy. He loved all of my ideas, when asking him to walk through two barrels he decided to jump them. And I thought that was a pretty good idea. :) I am pretty close to teaching him to pick up my hat- I know today was the first day. But he is so smart and understood exactly what I wanted! Riding he is a ton of fun also! I really enjoyed cantering (these four words never come out of my mouth) I was so surprised that I even wanted to canter on the first day everything felt so right and he had good flexion. I do have a riding video but I can't post it until we have Wi-Fi. I'll keep everyone posted! 

Also hurray for my article making it in the Savvy times!! I'm hopeful that it will inspire someone, somewhere in the world!