White Wash

And Tomorrow Is Another Day

And Moby Chair has had his day.

After cleaning out under the west run in roof--stuff accumulated from all winter long, including manure and old hay--I decided to long line Tucker. I am really trying to mix up the work I do to get him fit in a kind of "all round" way here. Lunging, riding for exercise, riding for dressage training, and long lining in a good upper level frame get his muscles working.

Moby Chair became an object of "gee, now I am going to be silly 'cause that stupid chair is out there and WHY NOT??" He was not scared of Moby but rather used it as an excuse to play around on the lines. Yep, that's a Thoroughbred for you. Full of creative invention.

Toby once spooked at a house on a hunter pace. A HOUSE! As we were approaching from hundreds of yards away, I could feel him starting to write a haunted house story with ghosts bobbing out of the windows. It really was quite a normal house and we never even got within a two hundred feet of it, but Toby had the story all finished as we passed and shied quite obviously all the way. Of course he also once spooked at a mouse on a log in the woods, so he is not particular about size.

But back to Tucker. A few time past and all was fine, but frankly the silliness is getting a bit old. He did give me some absolutely lovely work at the trot and canter, easily carrying himself in a good frame and, with lots of convincing, good impulsion. Actually, Moby Chair helped that along a bit because it did send him off at quite a clip a few times. In in all, I long lined him for about a half hour with two good breaks for some stretchy trot.

Then I sponged him off and went back out to take Moby Chair out of the woods. Well, that caused quite a ruckus as all three Boys spooked and bolted around the paddock when they saw the great white seat appear in the arena. And who was the first to trot over to put his nose on the plastic "monster?"

Tucker, of course. Not scared of it at all.

I put Moby in the yard. I may send him to recycling next week.

I let the mowermen out in the back yard again for about an hour. They unnerved me by running around a bit, but they finally settled down and trimmed my grass. They don't do the neatest job in the world, but it's a start. Guess I have to mow again this weekend.

So the memory of Moby has been washed away. The forest is green again. All is well.

Now all I have to worry about are the wild turkeys that keep showing up at the bird feeder.