Day Seventeen: I had been breeding my others stallion Expressive N Smart (Cody) the last few days and Happy now hears the call of the wild and has been trying to impress the ladies. He is really feminine looking and when he tries to strut I just have to laugh. I have waited a long time for this breeding and now I have to look past his awkward looks and hope he will grow into himself.
I have not worked with Happy for three days now and he is full of it. I am not sure if he is nervous about me stepping up on him or just fresh. I long line him again making him trot a small circle around me, his is good to the left and will walk after awhile of trotting. Now on the other side the slightest movement from me makes him trot faster and faster. I’m getting irritated with him today and try to make him circle smaller to slow him down, which in turn make Happy freak out and bolt away, rope burning my hands. I know better, I take a deep breath and try it again making sure to just hold him there until he walks. If he tries to stop and face me I press him slightly to keep going, In his learning process he will try to stop then take off when I ask him to keep going, trotting faster, finally working back around to wanting to stop again. I am, what I call winding him down, just me being that close to him makes him nervous, the pressure is already there, I am waiting for him to think about excepting and relaxing.
I step up on him again today and he is really good until I patted him on the hind end. I had his face around to the side I was standing on but I patted him on the other hip. He looked back the other way so fast all I knew was he was spinning around the wrong way and sent me flying. I landed on my feet and pulled him back around to face me. Woops. I hold his head around tighter this time and step up again patting him on the side I’m up on first. I even cluck to him and ask him to walk a circle around with me standing in one stirrup. He handles this well on both sides and so I throw my leg over and just sit on him. I’m still riding alone so I just sit and chat with him a while. It’s always funny to me the first time I look down at them. A lot of hours will be spent looking down at Happy. He didn’t look any better from this view and even looked a bit uglier, his white on him nose made his head look longer and skinnier. Poor Happy he is an ugly duckling. He was trying to take a little nap so I thought I should dismount before he fell all the way asleep and then wake up forgetting I’m up there. He stood quietly while I dismounted, he lost the sleepy look but he never moved his feet. Another day forward;0)