Bounce that ball!

My dogs are always pestering me to play ball with them, and last weekend when Janice was over and we had Beamer tied to the hitching rail was no exception. Watch the video, and tell me if you don't think Beamer is on his way to becoming a good bomb-proof horse!

(The extra dog is Janice's dog, Sage, a Reba daughter from her first litter).I think he'll do well in the parades this year, and I really gotta get that flag built to practice with!

The flag videos

Here are the videos I was having trouble with the other day. The first one is when I sacked him out from the saddle, standing still and the second one is riding him around. Piece o' cake! We'll be loping around with a real flag in no time!

Flaggin'

My husband is a member of the NorthWest Mounted Police Commemorative Association. So today he told me that the unit is going to be in the Cranbrook parade in June and he wants to ride with them. That means he has to ride Beamer. And that also means that I have to get Beamer accustomed to all kinds of different sights and sounds, starting with carrying a flag, as all the troops carry lances or flags when they are on parade. He used to ride Poco, a half sister to Beamer, in all the parades, until I sold her. She was a great mare, he even rode her into a Soda Shop in Black Diamond once (he was invited in by the owner). So anyway, today when I went to the indoor arena for team sorting- surprise, surprise, no one showed up! Worked for me, because I got to use the time on training B-boy to the flag. I used a stock whip with a torn up old flag on it, and sacked him out on the ground first. He looked a little worried at first, like " whatcha doing with that? Just get on and lets go, okay?" After a few moments of fidgeting around, he was cool with it once he realised it wasn't going away till he stood still.

I used advance and retreat techniques, and kept the flag moving while he was moving, stopping it when he stopped. He's no dummy, it's so much easier just to stand still while silly human does silly things.

After a few minutes, we were both bored, so I rode him around a little to warm up then rode over and picked up the flag, and sacked him out with it while standing still.

Since that didn't bother him, I rode around and he handled it like an old pro. (I had a video but it wouldn't load, I'll see if it will tomorrow. Darn Blogger!)

Ted came up and rode for a while; it's been a couple of years since he has ridden.

It'll take him a couple of rides to get used to Beamer's buttons, but they got along just fine.

My boys

It'll be fun watching them in the parades. Ted's uniform is the red serge, almost the same as the modern day police force. The NorthWest Mounted Police were the forerunners of the RCMP, Canada's national police force. The Commemorative Association does re-enactments from the pioneer days, including some of the infamous battles.

Parade day!

Today is parade and rodeo day in our little town. I'm one of those people who goes to see a parade just to see the horses in it, and here are some of the characters who graced our parade today:

They were pulling this coach filled with the senior citizens:

Then there were the Percherons:

What a couple of characters! Love that expression!

And of course, we must have children on ponies! This little foal

was quite independent and not at all worried about mama getting way ahead of her. Cute as a bug's ear!

This was my favourite entry of all- the walking haystacks!