Today Rob was a Rockstar, well realtively speaking. Not only did he stand like a pro in the cross-ties, he went out to the outdoor today without acting like someone just shot a firework over his head. He did bolt into me immediately leaving the barn, I winced, shut my eyes, held my breath and was half expecting to feel his hooves scrape down the back of my legs. But instead of getting more ansty he stopped and struck his "invisible saddlebred" pose. I think this is a sign I have a pretty good little fella in the works.
He WALKED past the pigeon coop and into the arena without spinning one circle. BIG improvement from yesterday.
He lunged (much more controlled) walk, trot, canter, whoa both directions. I then attached those short-long reins and asked him to move forward. Today he was not as receptive, in fact he really wasn't receptive to the reins at all. He did listen to my voice commands so hopefully we can start synching the two.
Even bigger news today is that Brahma was being shipped to George. He was actually supposed to leave tomorrow (Thursday) but the shipper called Louise (the barn manager) and said he was coming today. This made me a bit quizzical about the shippers George chose to hire. It seemed odd to me that Brahma had to travel to MN to head back to Illinois, I know it may have been out of the way to go back to WI from the Twin Cities to head south to Illinois, but that is also an additional day and several hundred miles on the trailer.
The hauler talked to me assuring me she knows what she's doing even though her dates for the MN horse expo and locations didn't match up. I hope for Brahma's sake they provide a smooth, safe ride. He's expected to arrive tomorrow, Sunday or Monday...