Day 27

It was a lovely sunny day today. Michele and I went over to the horses in the afternoon. I was feeling really stressed and that translated into fear when I arrived at the yard. J.B was in the yard and he whickered hello when we went in. Michele offered to put him in the arena, but I said he was fine. I got the head collar and went out to the field. Cori, Megan and Sky were all grazing in the lower field and Cheyanna and Humphries were in the upper field on the furthest side from the gate. Humphries walked a little towards us when I called, and then stood watching us, so we had to troop into the field to get him, but he led out well after that.

Leading Humphries in from the field

I led Humphries into the stable and he didn't try to rush out or anything, and behaved very well. Michele took J.B into the arena to lunge and ride, so I let Humphries out of the stable to wander about the yard.

Even though free to wander, Humphries goes back into the stable!

I watched Humphries nosing around the yard, poking his head into everything and sniffing around the goats and dogs. He kept on coming back to me to nuzzle my pockets for treats, and then he would use the gate into the arena as a scratching post, while watching Michele ride. I wandered around with him and he followed me for a while. He was so sweet, it was hard to be afraid of him. Especially when all the animals came and crowded around me and followed me around, with the sun shining and the swallows flying, it was so peaceful.

Humphries and Tom

I did some filming of Humphries in the yard and then I put away the camera and stood leaning against him. He stood perfectly still, just sharing the moment with me. He is so good. After that I went into the arena to see how Michele and J.B were getting on.

J.B trotting

Michele was warming up J.B on the flat. Things were going well. J.B was behaving well but not going forward with a lot of impulsion. He twists his head to the side, evading the bit, which makes riding him really hard work. Michele gets energy from him, and then it fizzles out because he is blocking the rein.

Taking a breather

After she had warmed up on the flat and put him through his paces, she did some jumping. J.B is still quite new to jumping and only beginning to enjoy it, but he has oodles of ability.

Then on to canter work
And popping over some jumps

The jumping went well, but I didn't get to see it all as Humphries started to kick the wheelbarrow at the gate into the arena to get some attention. I went back into the yard and decided to groom him. I didn't tie him up or put him back into the stable, but tried to groom him outside. He behaved really well, standing still while I brushed him and picked out his hooves. He even followed me up to the water trough when I wet the sponges for his face and dock. I cleaned around his right nostril and he tilted his head so that I could clean around his right. By the time I had finished grooming him, Michele had finished riding, so I led Humphries into the arena while Michele looked after J.B. Humphries walked really happily into the arena and then stopped just short of the gate and wouldn't walk all the way in. He stood on the threshold sniffing the air for a while and then pottered into the arena. I walked around the arena for a bit and Humphries followed me. It was nice. Then I decided to lead him back into the field. I didn't have a lead rope or anything, but Humphries was being so good I didn't think I would need one. However, as soon as we left the arena, Sky and Cori cantered up to the gate, followed by Megan and Cheyanna, and Humphries walked briskly off into the bull field. It was a tricky situation, but I felt I had to do something to resolve it rather than running for help, or lose control of Humphries completely. Using my trusty buff head covering, I ran along the fence chasing Cori and the other horses away from the gate. Then I waded into the bull field and took hold of Humphries head collar. He was quite happy grazing there, so pulling on the headcollar wasn't enough to get him moving (but it did pull off the headcollar). Once again employing my buff, I used it as a rudimentary lead rope and led Humphries back to the gate and into the field. Feeling pleased that I had managed to do this, and also discovered two new uses for my buff, I rejoined Michele in the yard and helped her fix up the stable before we left for home.