Schooling on Two Levels

November Begins

I nearly overslept this morning, but fortunately woke up at a bit after 9 AM. Just in time to feed the Boys, do a few chores, eat breakfast, and then get ready to go give a tutoring session.

My student is a lovely young 6th grader who lives about 14 miles away. I had directions, but forgot to take my GPS--it was in the car instead of the truck (which I am still driving until the car's suspension is fixed), and I did not remember to take my tutoree's phone number with me. Good thing I saw her dad going out to get the mail or I would have missed her house altogether.

I made it there, however, thank goodness. We had a nice tutoring session which took a bit longer than I'd anticipated because my student's mother had a lot of questions. Hopefully I helped her out and steered her in the right direction for parent/teacher conferences which are coming up soon.

After tutoring, I headed back home. I had a lunch and got distracted playing with some of the features on my new TV. I still have a lot to learn but I am getting the hang of things at least a little.

Finally, I headed outdoors into the beautiful weather to do something with the horses.

Tucker was on the agenda first, so he was my second schooling session of the day after the tutoring. Apparently, he has forgotten that a leg aid means to go from walk to trot instead  of laying his ears back, balking, and then humping his back to offer a buck because I gave him a little kick.

I promptly corrected that behavior and told him to trot off again. The second time, he did. We then worked on some trot/halt/trot transitions over and over until he was willing to trot off with a light aid. Canter departs were OK for a change so I didn't have to make a fuss about that.

The sad fact is that Tucker really does not respect me and tends to challenge my requests. It takes a bit of nerve on my part to insist he respond because he can, as he tried today, give a good buck if he gets too arrogant. Fortunately, I have so far been able to tune him up and tune him in with a little extra effort on my part, but I would be nice to avoid the initial confrontations. *sigh*

After I finished Tucker's schooling session I saddle up Chance and took him out on a short trail ride through the woods. Our only little glitch was meeting a bow hunter out there. The guy was dressed in camouflage and when he stood still, he was nearly invisible among the trees. I asked him to both talk and move so Chance would know he was there and once he did, my boy was just fine with him, even though he had spooked at first.

The woods are beautiful this time of year with all the color on the trees and no bugs. The back cornfields are cut but the one nearest my pasture is still standing. Once that is cut, I will have even more places to ride.

Hopefully I will get out in the saddle a lot in the next months.