Day 85

Happy New Year everyone!

It was a beautiful snowy morning in Cottonwood.  What a wonderful way to start the new year:  with a fresh, clean slate.  :)

Doc and I have had quite a few adventures in the past week.  I can't begin to tell you how much fun the daily excursions have been for both of us.  Leaving home is not always easy because he doesn't want to go away from his herd.  However, once we get past the magnetic pull of home, we venture out into the woods and the fun begins. He perks up instantly and is much more willing to go.  He gets a spring in his step as he looks around at his environment, just taking it all in.  Doc seems to enjoy the scenery as much as I do, and we feed off of each other's adventurous spirit.  We tromp up and down hills until we can barely see our way home, and I am always sad that we don't have more time.  I can't wait for daylight savings to start again!  On these walks, Doc is not only being exposed to a lot of new sights and sounds, but the movement of going up and down hills, under branches, over logs and creeks, etc., is really helping his legs to gain blood flow and slough off more dead tissue.  I don't even need to mention all of the training that is taking place every minute that we are out.

We also took a field trip to Cottonwood Creek Equestrian Center on Thursday!  I had an early lesson with Cohasset, so I took Doc along to practice ponying in the arena.  That turned out to be one of the best "bright ideas" I have had in a long time.  I definitely needed more practice with ponying in a controlled environment.  Doc wanted to get very pushy with Cohasset, and constantly tried to trot out in front of us.  Cohasset proved to be a wonderful partner for me, and was right there with the discipline.  I went ahead and let him correct Doc, and between him and Gail's voice in my head saying, "correct sooner so that you don't have to make such a big correction," I finally figured it out, and things improved drastically.  Soon we were trotting around the arena like a few old pro's. 

The arena was extremely busy that day, so Doc got some wonderful exposure to other horses with a lot of activity going on around him.  The energy was high, and at first, Doc was a bit nervous.  After some basic ground work (thanks Gail!! ;) , he soon calmed down, and even rolled in the middle of the arena with me holding the lead rope!  When he was finished rolling, he sat on his side for a while, and let me rub his back before he got up.  This was a first for me, and I am still grinning from ear to ear!

Best wishes to all for a wonderful 2011!

~Jackie