The Devil Has Returned... Kind Of

Yep. The devil - that would be the stop'n'go problem that Tarzan and I have - has returned. I should start at the beginning of the story, right? Here goes.

Claire took me to the barn today. When we got there, we had to wait for Erica to get herself over to the barn from the house (she was printing out yet another thing to put on Emmy's 'memorial' stall). When Erica finally got over there, she tells us to go get or ponies.

So Claire and I trudge out into the field (it was really hot outside today, like, 85 degrees) sweating out butts off to get Pete and Tarzan. Thankfully, Tarzan gave me a break and didn't run from me in the field today. We got the horses up to the barn with no incident. I quickly (a bit more quickly than I was supposed to) groomed Tarzan, just ran the soft brush over him and picked his hooves. Then, I lunged him at the trot and walk - no canter today, he didn't have very much energy - and nothing went wrong for once! Finally, a break! The only thing that was weird is that Tarzan wouldn't stand still no matter what so that I could attach the side reigns to his lunging bridle.  But oh well, Tarzan will be Tarzan.

Anyways, I saddled him up and took him into the outside arena. Yes, it's actually a pasture. Yes, it's all dirt. Yes, it's bumpy. No, it's not muddy anymore. ;) That made me happy - the not muddy part, not the bumpy and dirty and pasture part. Claire and I were the only ones riding again, and we had lots of fun. We attempted to do serpentines and figure-eights, but those didn't work out too well. Erica video taped me cantering. I have to say, I'm very proud of Tarzan. We've come a real long way from when we started.

Tarzan no longer spooks at the saddle or saddle pad, has a slow-ish canter, can control himself when lunging, stands still when tied up and in the crossties, doesn't try to bite me, and picks up his feet. He's such a handsome boy. It's days like this that make me happy yet sad at the same time.

Tarzan's growing up. If only Emmy was still here to see how far we've come.