Where Did The Day Go?

Fun Anyhow!!

I went to a late breakfast with some good friends at the Cracker Barrel restaurant about 20 minutes away. I put in a special order for their bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich on sourdough bread. When we drove down to Atlanta for the '96 Olympics, my other friend and I often stopped at Cracker Barrels and I fell in love with the BLT. It was a good as I remembered.

And the company was good too. My friend Donna drove me down with her and we talked horses on the way. She says there is a horse at her barn--just across the woods from me--that might be perfect for Stacie. I'll report more on this as I find out the details.

I was home by early afternoon. But then, the bank called to tell me I'd been approved for the home equity loan I've been trying to get. Yea!! This means a lower interest rate on some money I've borrowed and a good bite into the credit card debt I need to pay off. Things are looking up.

As I was on the phone to the bank, the hay kids pulled in with a full load of hay!! Another yea!! I'm not sure how many bales they unloaded, but I now have a full carport again, so I am quite happy.

Then, I came back inside to try to figure out how to apportion the equity loan and wasted a good hour on one website that just was loading as if I were on a slow, slow modem instead of my high speed cable. What a nuisance. At that point, the afternoon was on the wane.

Out I went to work the Boys. I decided I'd lunge again but this time over some trotting poles and jumps. The warmup on the flat was great. He was nearly instant to all the commands. Then we headed for the obstacles and he started getting silly. Sometimes he trotted the ground poles and sometimes he cantered them. The two little jumps were first set at a one stride. I had to pull him up a half dozen times when he bucked and ripped off at a mad gallop on the open side, for fear he'd try to jump from that. But, remarkably enough, each time he did approach the little combo, he carefully adjusted his speed, balance and stride to meet them perfectly. I love that instinct!

I shortened the pair to a no stride for the finishing exercise and once again, Tucker adjusted himself. He did misjudge once, hitting the first fence and knocking it down. That sent him off into a nother buky frenzy, but once again, he settled all on his own to jump several more times beautifully.

I took Chance out for a session next. While he does need some encouragement to go forward he too was a wise jumper. As it was starting to get dark, I hurried the work a little and left the jumps at the no stride. I'd lunged him through that kind of combination before so I figured it was worth a shot to see how he'd go. Once again, he didn't let me down. He went over both jumps on each hand with equal skill. Again, I loved his natural ability to adjust himself to get over well.

Obviously, the jumps were little but still, both horses showed good common sense in figuring out the striding on their own.

Now, if only I were back in the jumper world, I'd have two really good prospects. Guess I'll just have to play around a little bit.