Rio at 18 months

Well, my lovely Rio turns 18 months today. Remember when?

(There's that 12 o'clock dog again!) 

The last year and a half have had their moments, he has scars on 3 legs as he went through the "wonder year" . He has grown into one handsome boy- can't call him little Mr. Handsome any more, he is taller than Beamer. I measured him today, he stands just over 14.3 and a quarter at the wither, and he is 15.1 and 3/8 at the hip. Looks like he is on track for that 15.2 hh that I predicted for him.

I worked with him yesterday,we did two new things. The first was to put him in the bosal and longe him. 

That went really well. Nice walk and trot, a couple of glitches on reversing direction, and loping both ways. 

One of the things I like about him is that he doesn't get silly and chargey; in fact if you don't pay attention, he just stops and looks to see what you want. 

Then it was time for the saddle, and this time, I had the back cinch on. I made sure he knew it was there, but the first step he took he got a little goosey . The thing I have to watch with him is that he heads straight for me if he is scared, so I was watching and stepped aside. Then longed him to the left, he walked out nice and quiet,

so I stepped him up to the trot, no problems. When I asked him to turn and change directions, he could feel that back cinch as he arced for the turn, and gave about 3 buck/jumps, then levelled out and we got some nice walk and trot work.

I'm pretty proud of this youngster, he's a really nice minded colt and downright pleasing to the eye. 

I trimmed his front feet today too, and he handles that fairly well, just a few times got a little fidgety and wanted to take his foot away, but not bad considering he's still a baby- and considering my unorthodox way of trimming; I have to squat down and lay his leg across my lap as my wore out back doesn't do well with that bent over farrier thing. His back feet will have to wait a couple of days- I MUST do Chickory's feet next.