Field Trip For Arthur

As much fun as I'm having playing with Katy and Piper, I believe my future lies with Arthur in some shape or another.  As such, I've stepped up his training and decided that I needed to have "lessons" to help make me get on him.  To be honest, the idea of riding him freaks me out.  Its not exactly fear or lack of trust in the big guy.  Its more a lack of trust in myself and my training abilities.  What I've been doing with him is different than I've done with other horses, but then again, I broke my rules and bought a "known" bucker so naturally I had to work outside my comfort zone.  Of course, he's really turned into a calm and quiet boy that's taking it all in stride and seems to be completely relieved to have his life simplified.

Which just leaves working on the mounted work.

I'm the type where repetition brings about confidence.  Once I've done it enough times then I own it.  Logically I have a checklist with him and a wonderful online help source to guide me on this journey.  Even for perfectionist me, I have to admit he's running out of ground work things and needs to be upgraded to a riding horse.  

When I thought about how I overcame some minor issues on cross country as a kid, I reminded myself I did best with people that told me to "just do it."  There's not really lessons for this training I'm doing so finding someone that could yell at me but also be knowledgable about what I've worked on seemed to be a daunting task.

Then I recalled I have a friend who's husband does this sort of thing.  I asked her if he'd be willing to help me out and to my shock, he agreed - for free!  I was so happy I could cry.  Due to our unnaturally wet year in Texas, I was only able to make it out there one time before May but Arthur was a rock star.  He acted the same there as he did at home.  We even got our first time in the round pen and he completely transferred all our training over to the round pen without missing a beat.  Shane rode him first and there were a few issues that I'd run into in the past few months so he showed me how to work it out.  He also said a round pen would help this along much fast and I frowned.  It was obvious but I didn't see that in the cards financially but I'd figure out something even if it was trailering places to use theirs.

I was so proud of my boy though as he did a great job being in a strange place, doing things that had bothered him before, and recalling his training so well.  We still have a fair amount of work to do on his exiting the trailer, but we made progress!