Greetings!
Boy, it’s great to be home and to be able to ride every day! Rich’s new horse arrived Monday night. It was dark by the time they got home so our welcoming committee, consisting of my friends and neighbors, couldn’t see much of the liver colored horse in the dark. But first thing Tuesday morning, we were all eager to see him again. He’s a gorgeous horse and a sweet heart—at least to people. I hope to have some pictures to post soon.
His name is “Chics Dig Him” but he’s called Diggs. I don’t know what it is about Rich but he’s going from a horse named Tuckers Loverboy to this. I can just hear the announcer now as he rides into the show ring, “And now, here’s Rich Moorhead and chicks dig him!” (I know at least one chick digs him—that’s me!). Actually, I think that mare’s (and the chicks) would really dig this horse because he’s one handsome hunk of horse flesh.
Diggs let the geldings know right away that there was a new kid in town and that he would be a force to be reckoned with, posturing and squealing for their benefit. Most of them went the other way, wanting no part of this stallion. But my younger horse, Gunner, thought he’d strut his stuff in front of Diggs.
While the geldings were out yesterday in their turnout, we put Diggs in the alleyway that runs behind the barn so he could stretch his legs a little. There was a gate that prevented him from getting too close to the turnout pen. He went up to the gate and pushed on it twice with his shoulder to see how much give hit had. Then he calmly turned around, walked back about 100’, turned back toward the gate, ran at it full speed and bumped it off the hinges with his shoulder. Not a mark on him but the gate went flying! It was an impressive show for the geldings and by that time even Gunner decided it was okay for Diggs to be king of the mountain.
Although Diggs has no qualms about being strong to the geldings, as soon as you put a halter on him, he’s mister manners and you can stand him right next to another horse and he won’t even look at him. Nonetheless, his little display yesterday may have bought him a date with the vet and a sharp knife a little sooner than we had planned.
Today Diggs will have his vet exam and we’ll know for sure at that point that we’ll keep him. I don’t expect any problems, even though I’ve been having bad dreams about that. We are fortunate to have known this horse for some time, know the sellers well and know that they have stellar reputations. So I am not too worried.
Dually and I had a good work yesterday. I’m working a little more on practicing his reining maneuvers. This is not something I practice too much because he’s pretty good at it all. But I’ve noticed that if I don’t practice enough, his maneuvers become a little rusty. We did a lot of counter bending, counter canter, then worked on spins, roll backs and stops. It’s a couple weeks before our next competition, so we’ve got some time.
Maybe I’ll have new horse pictures tomorrow!
Until then,
Julie
http://www.juliegoodnight.com
http://www.horsemaster.tv
