Days without a learn burn…0

Gosh darn it, it did it again. Another flippin’ learn burn! So I was playing with Cha’Cote after not having played with him all week due to his boo boo on his face. It is right where the halter lays on his face. At first he didn’t want me to catch or halter him….TURD! He shy’d at the BLUE halter and of course in the end, let me halter him. I only did a little on Saturday with him, as my son had a friend over for an all weekend sleep over and we were leaving early in the day to take them to town to see an Ice Hockey game. So Sunday, I decided we needed to learn something new. I chose jumping a barrel as that is basically the only thing left for him to conquer in order to be done with level 2, with the exception of a few friendly games. As a recently wild mustang and RBI, I am taking those a little slower.

We started the squeeze game with 2 barrels laying down far apart, then closer, then upright far apart, then closer, then laying down again and very close, then laying down together for a jump. I taped close to 40 min of video for my self….don’t worry, edited it down to less than 5min so that the other 5min is of something special that I will tell you about in a moment. So here we are playing with the squeeze game, all the other horse loose around us grazing, he decided to jump, knocked the barrel….scared the tar out of himself and split on me. In my mastered learning of just letting go, as not to hurt my shoulders or surgery site….AND….not get a learn burn, I caught up with him and stepped on the rope about half way up. Snookie scared him, he moved, I let the rope slide out from under my foot……and thought to my self….man my ankle feels hot (other foot) at that point there was only a foot or two of rope left and the damage done. Friggin learn burn on my ankle. ARRGGHH! Not too bad….but I almost passed out blowing on it when I applied the liquid skin medicine….YOWZA! All was well after that and he eventually jumped the barrel. We did a lot of approach and retreat….nose, neck, MAYBE feet. He touched and made noise on the barrel a lot with his knees and feet, and even investigated it with his nose a time or two. That is huge for him as he does not like things making noise when he touches them. So I was very proud of his bravery and he really put his heart into the “TRY” for me. Such a good boy. So proud of him. He also, found me cool enough to rub his head on my butt for a few seconds.

So here is the something special. After he jumped it the one time…..I quit then and there and took the halter off. He hung around, so I decided to play with him at liberty and see what would happen. OMG…we played hide your hiney, stick to me yo-yo……and ….AND…..drum roll please…………………SIDEWAYS! He had the whole half acre yard, with grass to tempt him to leave…and he didn’t. Well he did eventually, of course, but he stayed for almost 6 min. SIX MINUTES! All caught on tape, except for the unhaltering part as I figured no one…including myself, needs a whole minute and half of my big butt in close up! Anyways….I am sooooo happy. Once we get the jumping the barrels thing consistant…He will be officially a level 3 online student!

Here’s the video…enjoy!

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