Never's lesson in pictures

I took some pics of Never during his lesson last week. Not with my good camera like I should have, but with my cell phone, so the picture quality is truly awful. But they clearly show (okay, maybe not clearly) that his training is coming along very nicely.

Here we go...

Never picks up his feet, especially his hind feet, without kicking or shying




I tried to capture Never's reaction to the splint boots and bell boots, but the lag time on my phone is horrible. Suffice it to say that he could compete with Saddlebred for knee action!




I know, it's a ball. But it's on his back and he doesn't care!


The saddle went on without a problem, and she tightened the girth and he didn't seem bothered.


"Hey, you're on both sides at the same time!"


And she's up!

The trainer sat there for a couple of minutes, until he relaxed a bit, then she hopped down and did some ground driving. After a few rounds she hopped on again, worked on backing up, and then got back down for some more driving. At one point he pulled the rope from her grasp and started to run around the arena like a goofball. She caught him, but he spooked at the rope and took off, hit the gate at the other end of the arena, and nearly took it off the hinges. Then he took off down the path to the other barn.

The trainer seemed a little worried that he'd take off down the road, but I was pretty sure he'd just go to the gate and talk to the other horses. And that's where we found him, blowing and sweating and talking to the other horses.

The trainer caught him and calmed him down, then took him back to the arena. I tried to fix the gate, while she worked on getting Never's mind back in the game. I gave up and shut the door, and by the time I had finished and walked around the barn to the other entrance, Never was calm and paying attention.

The trainer did a little more work with him, ended the lesson on a good note, and handed him off to me to cool off and graze a little. It was nice to hang out with my boy, and especially nice that he had better manners than before. We grazed until he was dry, and then walked down the the pasture. His goofball buddies were waiting by the gate, but he let me open the gate, walk in, and then he politely walked in when I asked him to. It was a good end to a fun filled day.