Saturday, April 9 2011

Groomed and rode Magic. He is not shedding as much as Newt and Little More is not shedding much either. They are just short haired. Magic isĀ insistentĀ that he wants to keep his Mohawk look and the clippers are an instrument of the devil. His bridal path was obviously clipped in November or December. I’ll try some other way than electric clippers. We rode out to the Oak pasture. The cows were there but Magic paid them no mind and none of them came running up behind us today. We rode the circle and I actually forgot to do any other arena exercises. Magic was very good when we rode around the Oak pasture. He had a little start when York (a lab) dove into the pond right beside us. That has spooked lots of horses. I remember Tut in particular. I am developing confidence in Magic’s coolness in situations that might spook other horses. When we got to the gate the cows were hanging around. I took the opportunity to drive them away with Magic. I expect TB’s have the same level of “cow sense” as Quarter Horses. I think it is a horse thing not a breed thing. I had several Quarter Horses that showed no interest in working cattle and the best cow horse I ever had was Lady, a gaited horse. Lynn, the black man that was my mentor in everything about horses, called a gaited horse a “saddle horse” and when they were gaiting he would say they were “saddlin”.

Magic got in the trailer today quickly and calmly.