FUCKING FREEZING last night. beej wore his warm wintery jammies for the first time this year. hopefully he was toasty enough. i have a feeling i've fucked his clip by not rugging him tight enough? idk, he feels pretty fluffy atm (for a clipped horse). how long does it take before the clip grows out? louise said he'd prob need doing again - maybe july/august? idk.

anyway. the house is COLD, my ankles are cold. argh. i've been fiddling with my camera... the settings were at A2 size. can you believe it? that's ENORMOUS. i could only take 30 or so pics on a 1gig card. that's not right, i tell ya. might get jed to pic up a 4gig one, if possible.

so.

have had such a busy week, i barely saw my pony. had to forego my usual monday night visit & replace it with wednesday - even then the fatigue was just SO bad. ugh.

last sunday i figured he was a bit sour so i just bunged him in the round yard & followed some of the tips katy gave about Liberty work. just let him explore & let him come into me. then ur supposed to focus on an aspect of their body with ur eyes & look away when they 'respond' & move.

i felt like a real hippy, squinting at my horse, i tell ya. karen & paul watched for a while & it was quite uncomfy. anywho.
i'm pretty sure he isn't responding to me "thinking" about moving his legs. i think it has more to do with the piercing gaze & a sort of phase -3 pressure a la parelli... whaddayareckon????

I could not resist the urge then & jumped on bareback. we played about with a single line, using my seat & 'pressure' from the end of the rope (yes, rope twirling, lol) to change direction. you can tell he is not in his comfort zone at ALL with this & was very rushy. but it was kinda fun & we pottered about. he gave me these super powerful, zoomy trots, which were MOST fun trying to sit.

On wednesday night i just hung out with him & gossipped to kelli. was nice.

last night drove out & picked poo. he had broken blitz's old summer rug & managed to remove that whilst NOT removing his canvas outer rug. clever pony! i kind of expected the ol' summer rug to bust, but it's sad saying 'goodbye' to it now. it is still fixable - just need to reattach the tail flap & get a new buckle/fastening at the front... idk. i've had that rug for a long time & it's pretty sentimental. Beej was only wearing it because his own was left on during the rains on tuesday & he rolled & got generally gross. i do like my horses to wear an 'under rug' of sorts tho, so i scrounged around to find it. huh. a yr ago i had like 5 summer/cotton sheets & they've slowly all been mangled by beejay! he's shocking. the best one is his weatherbeeta, but it's quite a heavy denier - too much for the hot horse he is, during the summer heat, it's pretty good as an under rug tho. it's in the wash right now, actually, so hopefully will dry by the time i go out this afternoon.

after doing chores, i took him into the RY again & let him be for a while. i just sat on the crates in the middle (my mounting block) & he wandered about. he had a lot to look at. eventually he came over to hang out & was happy to follow & pick up feet & engage if i asked him. i climbed onto the mounting block & he did some circles for a while & thought he was super tricky by going to the right, but i foiled his plans & slid on from the offside anyway. similar stuff again, 1 rein. had to play some friendly game as he was giraffing it when the rope went in the air. that helped. he thought about some dirty tricks tho, which was interesting. if there's one thing beejay ISN'T, that's being dirty. he was giving me some pretty nifty sharp turns (of his own volition) & i felt that he was experimenting with "thinking" about dislodging me thru such quick,sharp movements. i didn't budge tho & laughed the whole time. after a while, i leaned down & tied the loose end of the lead to his halter & you could almost feel the relief in him once i did so. he really likes the comfort of that. very similar to his need for firm outside rein.
we just did a few laps, with halting & rein backs (only a few steps at a time) and i finished up.

took him for a walk down the drive & to the end of the street. he was a bit toey, especially when the dogs came out, but he survived. had to have a discussion about getting too far ahead of me too.

oh, and Erin (paul's daughter) nearly ran over us. i was at the end of the drive coming onto the road, she came hooning down the street, didn't indicate and slid into the drive. beejay went WOOHOO, she slammed on her brakes.
i didn't realise it was her, of course, until she wound down the window & said, "OMFG!" anyway. i really should get some kind of reflective wear as i do seem to be out a bit at night. dunno where to buy that shit from... anyone in perth got suggestions>?>??

anyways. got a partAY tonight but i will head out after lunch & take some photos. yay. i've gotta dump the mobile phone pics of katy & pudding, that i took last week. i meant to do that much earlier.


anyways.