Tractors, Dogs and Strange Horses, Oh My!

I have officially survived two more RIDES on Nic. Me and gma loaded him up on Saturday morning and took him down to Angies for the "open ride" before the actual practice, but I didn't want to go to performance practice. When he loaded up he was pawing, but settled down once we got on the road. Off the trailer like a gentleman, then it was like OMG! New place! Strange horses everywhere!!!!! lol, He wasn't that bad, just a little excited. When I got into the arena he was all starey eyed and snortey and whinnying, and then Bonnie came through the door with a horse and the HERD of dogs. He was looky, and he's not a huge fan of dogs, but he got over it. I put on the Parelli Halter and went to playing, just lots of getting him to move his feet, driving, and some moving circles, investigating the corners of the arena. He started to calm down, and then in the meantime, the farrier comes and is making all kinds noise, the dogs are barking up a storm, but Nic is getting over it.

After a little while he calmed right down to where he was just standing by me while I was talking, and standing calmly with a foot cocked and his head down. So I saddled up, moved him around a little more and got on. I need to work on getting him to stand still while mounting. For the most part the ride was good. I didn't canter him because I was working on getting him to stay an even tempo to the trot and not do the wavery, slow/fast thing all the time.

2nd ride- I took him to gaming practice yesterday and he did even better. Was whinnying when we got there, but it was feeding time for all the other horses and they were making noise, so he thought he had to. Mary had to work up the arena, so I took him into their amazing covered round pen and played with him for awhile in there. He is starting to get the principle games, and he seems to be a nice mix of LBI/LBE, not extremely overreactive, maybe a little lazy, but not so much that its hard to deal with . After that, saddled and went up the arena. Played a little bit more in there, then put the bridle on and had a good ride. He was doing pretty good with the gaming stuff, though I need to not let him stand in line with all the other horses because he really gets to where he doesn't want to leave. Thats not a big issue though.

List of what needs to be done with Nic:
-Work over Cavelletti to learn where his hooves are
-Start asking/teaching for vertical flexion
-Braid his tail
-Pull his mane
-Play more with porcupine game
-Get him to accept the bit/bridling (has a bit of a mouth issue...)

Picky Eater

I think me and this horse are made for each other....
"Hi, my name is Carissa and I'm a picky eater."
-Hi, Carissa
"Hi, my name is Nic and I'm a picky eater"
-Hi, Nic.

I noticed that he didn't want to eat an apple I gave him when he was sickly, and then yesterday he wouldn't eat the carrots. Then today he wouldn't eat the horse treats that all of our other horses LOVE. He would lip at them, pick them up, not chew and spit them out. ARG. So I asked Dad to pick me up some BerryGoods, because I know he likes those, the owner was giving him them when we bought him.

Today's session- good. Played with the principle games more. He's good with yielding HQ, but not FQ, telling me he's a bit more of a dominate horse. Still not horrible though, not rearing or anything, and he does move, just not willingly, and I think a lot of it is that he doesn't understand. Played a lot more friendly because he's kinda jumpy about the stick and string. I walked backwards with him at the end of the rope, swinging the stick and string over the rope, like Pat does all the time with the demo horses. Played with porky as well, that was OK. Once again, better with the HQ. I also worked with desensitizing him to a cell phone, lol. I had the music go off on my phone a couple times while holding where I would be while riding, he was a little iffy about that, but when it was by his face, he wanted to eat my cell phone. Also was lipping the CS when I let him investigate it. Seems to be a curious horse. He got distracted when JJ came up to the water tank because he really bonded with her, but just got his attention back when some driving and yo-yo. Shows tongue when he licks and chews.