The beat goes on

So RB4 and RB5 were busts, I never heard from RB4 again and RB5 was very promising.  She came out to see the place first and we got along well but then she emailed me yesterday letting me know she severely hurt her back and is bowing out.  She will contact me again if she feels better in a couple of months.  Ugh.  I have someone else coming out on Thursday, they are pretty close to me and they also have a TWH.  They are interested in eventing so we will see.  I have put the word out with 2 different trainers that I am looking for a riding buddy with free use of my arena and have heard nothing but frozen crickets.  Maybe someday I will have a riding buddy.

I rode the TWH last Saturday and while he was his normal blond self, he was pretty well behaved.  I brought the new dog along to run and she was much better behaved on the leash, she is learning the routine pretty quickly.  The TWH, however, was extremely concerned about a LEASH that was attached to the saddle.  And it made NOISE(!) when it retracted.  O. M. G. right?  Lol.  He is so funny about things.  I was finally able to convince TWH that it was okay to have the leash retract and that he could in fact walk forward if the leash went in front of him when the dog crossed his path.  The latter was surprisingly difficult to convince though we got it in the end.  Both animals were very well behaved when cars drove by and a couple even stopped and said hi to us as we went.  One lady even knew TWH's name.  I liked that because it means people are recognizing my horses (in case they ever got out) even though I had no clue who she was lol.

I was also very proud of the TWH.  On our 3 mile trip around the block there is a small stream that runs beside the road for about 400 feet.  Last spring I couldn't get the TWH to walk down into this stream and it wasn't more than a trickle for the summer when I rode by it so I never tried again.  Last spring and summer, however, we went cross country and he learned he could jump in and out of water so when we rode by it on Sat and I saw it was a full stream I saw a challenge.  I pointed him to it (with the dog already splashing in the stream and trying to roll in the water) and after a couple of kicks he went in the water!  It is a stupid thing to be so proud of but water can be such a challenge when it is presented in less than ideal situations and TWH can be so flighty.  It made my ride and TWH got plenty of carrots(icles) when we got home.  Wahoo!