I got a TRUCK!!! My first truck. My very OWN truck. It isn't new, and it isn't pretty, but it's a honkin' V8 longbed w/ a hitch and brakes and it even has an engine. I named it "Birdie" after dear li'l Mine That Bird, a plucky TB to catch the imagination of every TB lover. So... Introducing The Bird!!
It doesn't have any Saddlebred bling on it yet, but that's coming. I pretty much want one or two of eeeeeeverything World Champion's got. NO MORE switching the AC off and *praying* I make it up the big hill by Tractor Supply w/ 600 lbs of bedding in the back of my 4-cylinder car. NO MORE 3 trips to the feed store every Saturday.
Mind you, now, the first time I drove it to work, the exhaust DID fall out in the middle of a 6-lane artery, but what the hey. It runs - kind of - and it's MINE!
Oh yeah, about that Saddlebred colt I've got. Quattro. You remember him. He's doing awesomely well. My plan of working him in the lines on straightaways has worked really well; he has slowed down a LOT! He is also now ground driving outside the arena - just up and down the driveway and in figure eights and serpentines, so far: I still don't trust the brakes. We'll head down the driveway next week and see what happens.
Q is also VERY nearly ready to be backed. I made this sort of happen "by accident". A couple times a week, I've been slinging a saddle on him and making him stand at the mounting block while I hang off him from each side in turn and pat him and wave my arms and legs around. This past week we got brave and put full weight on him and led him a few steps each way. He was perfectly calm. He could probably be safely backed right now, except for the detail that he's 15.3 and 800 lbs, I'm 6' and 225 (sadly) at the moment, and I just don't think he needs that much weight on him. I need to find somebody light for him; I don't want him to start having sacroiliac problems at three. So the hunt is on: if you're reading this and you're near Chattanooga, get in touch - please!
He's getting there on the parking out; and - TADAAAAHHHH - has FINALLY learned to trot in-hand. He was the hardest horse to teach to trot on the line I have EVER trained: it usually only takes me ten minutes, but he had a case of the stubborns about it, for some odd reason, and made ugly faces and planted his feet when asked, and if "gotten after", ran backwards and kicked and then ran right over me! I tried every trick I knew: do it on the fence line; do it toward the barn at dinner time; do it in the barn aisle; do it with someone with a lunge whip behind. To NO freaking avail. But the penny finally seems to have dropped that if he trots he gets cookies, and he likes that. Whew. Problem solved. Wish he would have made it in time for the Liberty Classic, but they do stuff on their own time schedule, I guess...
That's it. I'm starving and I'm outta here. Liberty Classic showgoers, if you see The Bird steaming on the shoulder of the road between Cleveland and the Georgia line, stop and help a girl out, K?
The adventure continues!
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