Week of Griffin

28 April 2012

Somebody's a little butt high....  Do I suspect another growth spurt?  I think so!  He looks so awkward...  Whats going to be crazy I've realized now that it's May, is that I'm gone for three weeks of June.  With him growing like this I can't even fathom how big he'll be when I get back!!  Hopefully he'll not be a high-strung youthful idiot when I get back.  So far he doesn't strike me as being that way, but you never know what could happen in 3 weeks.

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Tuesday night we pulled out a bunch of PVC pipes and began working on trotting over them.  He was funny about it at first, stepping over everything like it was a foot taller than it really was, but then he fell into it as if he'd been doing it since always.  I was happy.  After that we went on a little jog for about a quarter mile on the one-lane asphalt road for his tootsies.  Took him a bit to get the whole "I trot when you jog" thing, but he got it!

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Wednesday night I rode Mayer for a short little jaunt.  Still exploring the trails.  She's super tender-footed as she doesn't have shoes and I have no boots that fit her monstrous feet, so we don't go for long when its just us.  I think I've solved her head throwing issue (for now at least).  She was trained as a cutting/team penning horse in her former life, and as a result is wonderfully responsive off your leg (I love it).  As a result, prior to now she never had someone in her mouth ever I don't think.  She was directed to the cows in the arena and then turned loose.  She would always throw her head if I put much pressure on her mouth.  I've switched her over to the sweet iron French D-link snaffle I have and she hasn't thrown her head since.  Progress?  I hope so!

Post short exploratory ride with Mayer, we murdered some starlings and then I brought G-horse in.  He got his meal and then we took a 4-wheeler ride.  Well, he got to jog alongside us.  He's decided its far more fun to go beside the 4-wheeler than behind it.  (No worries, his lead rope is in hand this whole time and there is slack in it, too.  He knows to come with me when I move and stop when I stop staying at my shoulder.  Besides, I wasn't driving and could focus on him.)  He's got such relaxed movement through his trot and canter.  Happy horse.

The creek was up from the 1" of rain we got the other night.  Griffin could care less about water.  I rolled up my pants and waded in with him and sent him away from me in a manner that he'd have to get in the deeper, faster flowing section that was above his hocks.  No big thang.  He seemed more disappointed that I wouldn't follow.

Post creek explorations, I decided to see if the previous night's lesson of move with me when I jog had stuck.  I mean, obviously he was somewhat familiar with the idea as he stayed near while on the 4-wheeler.  He did great.  We ran up the road to the house together and then stopped to talk with Jeanna and D and oggle over how pretty Griffin is becoming.  (We all sort of thought he'd be ugly....)  After a brief respite at the house he and I ran back down the the barn - he even cantered, controlled, beside me!  Good horse.

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Thursday night I managed to play with Griffin for a solid hour.  He's still not "cured" of his catching issues, but its not taking as long.  Part of the problem now is that its pretty much only him and Duke on 40 acres.  While they don't go far from the main field, they're hesitant to be without one another.  Duke has a harder time than Griffin I think.

Once he was finally haltered we headed over to the stream to play in the water.  The bugs are awful, I was out of fly spray, and it was in the 90s so the stream seemed like the logical place to be.  We walked upstream IN the stream for a ways.  G-man could care less.  So we came back down to an area with greater depths (nothing >4 feet) and I waded through and had him follow.  Sure, ain't no big thang.  He got in to his belly/chest and proceeded to splash and play and play and splash.  And then he just stood there.  We proceeded in this manner for a few minutes and then left that part of the stream, walked through a field, and went to another part where he proceeded to eat grass that was growing beneath the water's surface.  My horse the moose.  (This was normal grass just underwater from recent higher flows.)

Post stream expeditions we went on a ¼-mile jog on the road.  And then we came back and I attempted to film him trotting in hand.  By this point he'd had about enough of me (rightly so as this was one of the lengthiest amounts of time we'd spent together).  I thought about editing it.  Then I thought about not posting it.  But then I decided I would post it anyway because its just so comical.  Me yelling at Kenai to not stalk the free-ranging chickens.  Griffin refusing to be the willing-angel he'd been all day.  Kenai trotting along right after us like a little duckling...  Yeah.  Had to share the chaos.