Summer was late this year, later than the usual July 5 start date; it started on July 11. Spring was cold with late frosts; the garden took a few tries to get going. A friend gave me a tomato start, which nearly didn’t make it past the final late frost. I brought the tomato in at night and set it out in the sun during the day, hoping to toughen it up.
It decided to live, after I put a plastic pop bottle over it as a personal greenhouse and has thrived. We’ve eaten several sweet orange tomatoes from it and neighboring tomato plants. The beefsteak tomato has been wildly successful.
My other project these past several months has been podcasting on Youtube. I call my channel, The Knitting Equestrian Nomad, as the content is about my knitting projects and my horsemanship journey. It’s been a fun project, click on the link above if interested! Each episode is about 40-45 minutes long and I have 13 episodes so far.
As far as horsemanship goes, I’ve ridden Odin a fair amount on the local trails with different friends and Bragi is starting to learn about trailer loading. I have a whole different approach with him than I did with Odin. Odin required a combination of positive reinforcement and pressure-release with a strong dose of leadership. Leadership is a mindset, not the use of force or pain as a consequence. Odin needs to know that he must otherwise he’d rather not thanks.
Bragi responds very well to positive reinforcement and is a lot more sensitive to pressure compared to Odin. However, he’s far more accepting of fly spray, fly mask, and sheets. He loves his fly sheet. Odin still resists fly spray and the fly mask, which we continue to work on. The good news is the Odin will self-load in the trailer now.
For Bragi, I’ve been using target training to ask him to get in the trailer. This means he touches an object, in this case a traffic cone, with his nose and gets a reward. I’ve been putting in the trailer and he’s very proud of himself for putting his front feet in the trailer. He will do this part at liberty. Putting that 3rd and 4th foot in the trailer is a lot more work for him so we practice and more importantly I teach him how to back out of the trailer quietly and safely.
Yesterday I introduced Bragi to the mounting block. He doesn’t mind that I stand over him, but he doesn’t quite understand moving away from pressure, especially toward me when I tap his opposite hip to get him to move his haunches toward the mounting block, where I’m standing. His tendency is to shut down to the tapping on his hip; I add a cluck and he moves. Reward! Repeat ad nauseum. It’s a lot for him to process so we take our time. He’s only 4 and still growing so there’s no pressure for actual riding. Plus, I barely get out enough to ride O.
Someday I hope teach them to pony so that if I ride one, the other can come along so everyone gets exercise and a change in scenery.
It’s been very smoky from nearby wildfires recently so trail riding has been on pause. Before the fires I hurt my back right after the opening photo was taken. Not much riding for me except around here with the bareback pad and sometimes a bridle.
