Tracks and training

This morning when I went to the barn for chores I noticed that all the cat food was gone..... I usually put out about 3 cups of catfood at night, and there is always some left by morning. Hmmm.  Sure enough I found tracks of the culprit- the raccoon is back.

As I rode Beamer this afternoon - beautiful sunny afternoon- I spotted more tracks down by the pond.

Coon tracks on one side.....

Deer tracks on the other side. We actually flushed a couple of whitetail during our ride. Beamer was really enjoying getting out, I sure love the way he just strides out and is curious about everything.

After our ride I gathered up Mesa and headed to the round pen. I did take her for a walk yesterday, and she is so much fun, just like Beamer, gets out and walks up good and checks everything out.

So today I let her have the freedom of the round pen, and used it to work on a few things. The tarp was still laying in the pen, and she checked it out in between bouts of sheer exuberance.

Then it was time to actually learn something, so the next step was to get her to turn towards me and to stop when I say whoa.

I don't like to drill the babies, so this was enough compliance for the first time.
Then we reviewed walking over the tarp:

Then it was on to something new: dragging the tarp while leading her. At first she leaped around a bit, but I took her in hand and the tarp in the other hand and walked around in a big circle, both ways, until she stopped being flighty and got interested.

All in all it was a pretty good session. And to top off a great day, a little while later I walked over to the mare pen, and Mesa came over to the fence and hung out with me and gave me kisses- her kisses are every bit as good as Beamer's! Very nuzzley.   Love this filly 💖

Riding day 7