Linus’s Weekend

May 19, 2013

We spent a lot of time with Linus this weekend, and his progress shows it. Such a smart pony.

On Saturday Rich spent about two hours with Linus. It went very well. he brushed him, picked his hooves, tacked him up and did some ground work. Rich also briefly climbed on and I led him around on Linus for a few minutes.

Rich reinforced his Saturday work with Linus on Sunday, and again groomed him, picked his hooves up, tacked him up and lunged him.

Linus is an affectionate pony and he nuzzled Rich, waffled his neck and face, and rested his head on Rich’s shoulder quite a bit.

We watched Linus chew and lick as he thought and yawn as he digested and worked through the stress of all this new trust. He looked to both of us quite a bit for reassurance, and eagerly accepted our good boys.

We discovered he is afraid of the rasp, so I will spend some time working through this until I am able to rasp his hooves, and then have Rich give it a try with him. Hopefully this will make it a little easier for the ferrier next time he is out.

I also mounted up and took Linus for a brief ride both Saturday and Sunday. He was excellent. Rich held a lunge line, and I worked Linus around him at a walk, working on woe, and walk-on. I felt that his balance had improved since the last time I was on him, and he seemed a lot more comfortable with weight on him.

I am really excited to have Linus coming along. It is so rewarding to see how quickly he improves and how eager he is to please.

And now, here are a bunch of photos from this weekend.