November 8, 2009 – More cross ties

I've had Rory in twice in the last week for more crosstie training. Today he actually genuinely was on the crossties AND I even left him for a few seconds three times to retrieve brushes, shovel and then dump his pile off the shovel into the wheelbarrow. He was very good. He did try to follow me when I went for the shovel, but I was close when he hit the limit of the ties and I went back to reassure him, push him back and have him stand while I moved away. He was a good bit cleaner when I took him back out and we went around doing some in-hand trot practice. He was good for that too.

When we went back to his field the siblings were lined up and hanging over the gate. The siblings being Toy, his two year old and five year old sisters. The sisters are large horses. The two year old is 16h+ already, and the five year old over 17h. Toy is not that much smaller than they are! Okay, I grant that his mane was fuzzing up over his withers, and the two year old was standing in the low spot, but still! I hope Rory doesn't feel the need to keep up with Toy or he'll end up too big for me!