Afternoon Working Photos

I had a friend here riding with me today, and she had time to take some photos and video of me with Dewey this afternoon.  Finally proof that I do exist!  It's hard to be in the photos when I'm always taking them.

Dewey and I started at the horse trailer like we always do, brushing and putting boots on.  He's a little antsy because he knows something fun is coming and it's hard to be patient when you're so excited to go play.

Then once he's tacked up we walked to the round pen with Mahzi, who is taking her job as the horse-training-dog-in-training very seriously.

Once in the round pen I put Dewey on the lunge line so he can frolic a little before I ask him to really think hard about anything.  He sure was feeling his oats this afternoon and was so fun to watch.  One of the great things about him is he will run around and play on the line, but he runs out of steam pretty quickly, and then once he gets his jollies out of his system he's pretty quiet and focused.  Not every thoroughbred is like this, for example if I let Highboy just run and play on the line he could go ALL DAY on adrenaline.  But Dewey is very sensible and just needs to jump around a little and then he's ready to get down to business.

 Mahzi thinks that lunging is great fun, too.  She's still a little confused about what she's supposed to do if Miles isn't in the round pen with us to set the example, but she's trying hard.  She at least has figured out that she's safer outside the round pen until I have the horse paying attention, then she will come in to assist.  Mahzi is there for just about everything I do with the horses, considering she's only been a Bit of Honey Training dog for about 2 months she has come quite a long way!

Dewey was doing so well, it was time to put a bridle on and see how he did with that.  I was able to get the bridle on easily, and he made some silly faces with the bit in his mouth but overall seemed quite relaxed.  I then put his halter on with the lunge line attached to that, on top of the bridle so that I wasn't cuing him with the bit at all.  Then we lunged with the bridle on and it was like he had to relearn all over again how many feet he had and how to use them.  I see this commonly with young horses, each time you add in a new distraction or something to think about, everything else they have learned gets set back a little while they incorporate the new stimulus into the routine.  Nothing to worry about, just something to note so that I'm patient and give him the time he needs to assimilate all that he's learning.

In other news, Dewey's brass halter plate arrived today!  He'll be sent to his forever home with this leather halter and his name plate which says "Dewey - 2015 Equine Comeback Challenge"