Kaswyn's fun day

I'm still waiting! Argh!

Anyhow, I just thought I'd post an update on Kaswyn. Right now nobody is leasing him, he's not up for any programs, and nobody is using him for lessons, except Macey. She has taken one lesson on him so far and will be coming out to the barn with me on Sundays to have a lesson. Since she is six the lessons will be short, and only at the walk right now, but she is all for it. The barn manager, who is also a trainer, will be teaching her. I tried to teach her but frankly the other gal is much better at teaching kids since she's done it for years. And Macey listens to her much better than she listens to me!

As far as Kaswyn's health goes, he's just fine. He's been missing a shoe for almost two weeks so he can only be ridden at the walk. He still gets turned out every day with his buddy Mikey, which of course he loves. And he is still such a stinker. Here is why.

Yesterday I decided to go up to the paddock where Kaswyn lost his shoe to try and find it for the blacksmith who is coming on Thursday. I decided to take him up there with me and let him graze while I looked. There was a big puddle of water right in front of the entire gate area, and we both had to jump through it to get into the paddock. I figured he would not want to jump over the puddle again, so I didn't latch the gate cause I would have had to stand in the puddle to do so.

Well.

I let Kaswyn loose, and started looking for the shoe. Thirty seconds later he headed for the gate, jumped over the puddle, blew through the gate and out of the paddock. He stopped just outside the gate and started to graze. Huh. I figured if he was going to just stand there and eat the nicer grass outside the paddock then fine, I'd keep looking. But noooo, he couldn't do that. About two minutes later he whipped his head in the air, screamed out, and ran full speed back to the barn.

What a booger! Of course I was in the paddock that was the farthest from the barn, so it took me a few minutes to catch up with him. By then one of the gals from the barn saw him and was trying to catch him. She was saying "Are you ok? What happened?"

Yes, I'm okay, and what happened is I was being dumb by not latching the gate.

When Kaswyn gets loose, you can't chase him. He just runs like a total fool and makes a huge game of it. So I just walked calmly behind him and waited for him to stop and eat. Once he figured out that I wasn't going to chase him and holler "WHOA!" at him, he stopped and I caught him easily.

I'll be very happy to have that other shoe on and be able to ride him again. Even at twenty he still knows how to push my buttons. At least he has a good time doing it.