Ladies Horse Camp

Day Two of Ladies Horse Camp, but really Day One for me. I had to miss yesterday's camp because of John's doctor's appointment.

Day One for Prince and I was a fun one. We had a great time learning new things, such as how to properly load a horse in the trailer. Prince wasn't too thrilled with that lesson because he thinks that going in the trailer means going to the vet. He used to load beautifully, but a couple of years ago decided that he didn't want to take rides in trailers any more.

Vickie was our instructor for trailer loading. She has helped load Prince before so she knows what a stinker he is about loading. The first time we tried loading Prince, he balked and I had to turn him around. Vickie pointed out to me what I was doing wrong and why he was not wanting to load. The second try he went into the trailer with just a little bit of hesitation. He unloaded fine, by backing out. The third try at loading he got in the trailer just fine. This time we unloaded by taking him out front feet first. I like unloading him this way. Other horses had little problems too so Prince wasn't the only one. Of course, Mocha and Tracy are the pros and loaded up without any problems.

Diane then had us saddle up and ride. I trotted Prince around quite a bit and with this new long-shank snaffle, I seem to have better control of him and he is not fighting this bit like he did the Tom Thumb. Anyway, at first I wasn't comfortable going any faster than the trot (because it's been three weeks since I've ridden him). But Diane was having Jan/Dusty and Tracy/Mocha doing lead changes, I decided to get out of my comfort zone and do these too. Prince did just fine, I just got confused a couple of times and gave him the wrong cue for the wrong lead. Just one more thing to concentrate on and practice.

He got to go out to his new pasture after our Camp for a couple hours of rolling and grazing. I went back out this afternoon to put him in his stall and he seemed quite happy and was willing to go back to the barn. We will see if he is still in a happy mood for Day Two of horse camp.