You Want me to do WHAT? -- Yes, Blue - "Ride For Real!"

At long last, the traveling-with-horses season has officially begun.

The beginning (Ides?) of March saw us (Blue and I) traveling to Springfield IL for the Illinois Horse Fair (produced by the Horsemens Council of Illinois) for a weekend of both giving and receiving assistance.

While I helped to keep everyone warm on the outside in some of the older (historic) buildings of the Illinois State Fairgrounds, Blue (with a little help from me) helped warm people's hearts with a few fun romps in the arena under the guidance (egging on?) of Steve Lantvit of Steve Lantvit Horsemanship.

We manage to do most of the things in the pasture at home that Steve had us working on in the arena at IHF (but I can safely say no where near as smoothly as he would desire) - backing, side stepping, opening gates, dragging branches - Blue demonstrated (mostly with that devilish gleam in his eye I am sure!) that those and him were not meant to be in the same arena during IHF!



While one minute feigning dread at the rope "gate" and attempting to eat the gate the next, his crowning achievement was being chased by a blue barrel on a rope while being chased by 4 other horses/riders in front of a full crowd on Sunday morning!  What a rush!!!


We had a great time!  I learned a huge amount about working with Blue (and horses in general) and gained a lot of insight about my skill set.  It was a great weekend.

As Steve Lantvit says - "Ride for Real"!

Peek A Boo over the Fence

Yes, this is a(nother) story about Blue!  And my grandkids.  And some CHICKENS.

There has been a big (to a chicken) brown box (BBB) setting just a feet away from the pasture fence for a couple of months now.

And for the last couple of weeks, some additional strange noises emanating from said BBB - chicklet cheeps!  It must be driving the horses crazy how a BBB could be making such noises (Blue has been known to dance in front of the dog's pen to get them going, but he can see them directly!).

This afternoon, Kim (daughter-in-law) and grandkids (Macy & Chelsey) were feeding (aka "playing with") aforementioned chicks - IN the BBB - and noticed Blue coming over to the fence with eyes riveted on the BBB and whichever one of the girls was outside.

He came over to the fence and was cocking his head to see around fence boards.  Obviously he was interested in all of the above and wanted more loving human interaction.  So the girls walked to the fence - and Blue walked back about 3 feet.

The girls retreated - and Blue walked up to fence.

The girls walked to the fence - and Blue retreated...  Get the drift?  Happened multiple times.

After several repetitions of this "dance", Blue decided he definitely had achieved his goal of diverting the attention of the humans (sort of smiled - like he won - and looked like he giggled) from the BBB and walked to the fence with the girls at the fence, letting them get close to him for his well deserved hugs and kisses.

Yup!  Blue knows how to attract the girls!