Bacardi Has A Fieldtrip

What is this, TWO posts in one day?

I don't think this has ever happened, for me, in the history of blog, so can we please just take a moment..

OK! Today was adventurous. In many positive, and some kind of negative ways.

Bacardi went on a fieldtrip, as we have gathered form the title. He was a mostly good baby OTTB and it was a mostly positive experience.

Majesty

I say mostly because we had....some learning experiences.

Yesterday we worked on getting in the trailer. After 2 hours, we came to an understanding and he got 2 feet on. That was HUGE. I was determined to get somewhere with him in a non aggressive way. It took 2 hours of insane patience, but we got there. And I think deepened our bond a bit too.

This weekend my boarder and I planned to move the babes to an indoor arena about 10 minutes from our farm. She's letting us pasture board for the weekend and utilize her MASSIVE indoor for an insanely cheap price. So happy I could die.

The biggest road block was getting there.

This AM though I was confident he would load and he did! After about 15 min he loaded all the way on and was just OK. He was a little scared, but trusted me enough to remain calm. Something bad must've happened to him in a trailer...feel bad for B. Lilly loaded right up, surprisingly, and we were on the way.

Just want to give myself a huge high five for stupidly loading two flighty beasts on a trailer by myself and not injuring any of us. That was dumb...but successful. Go me. I would say I'll never do that again, but I seem to be shorthanded on barn bitches, so it will definitely happen again.

Getting OFF the trailer was another story.

Not only is he afraid to get on, he is also terrified to get off. The other 2 times we've trailered I've attached the lunge line and then stood waaaaaay out of the way behind him, opened the divider up as wide as it would go and he would just turn himself around and come out front first. Always went well.

Yeah he wasn't having that today. Took him about ten minutes to muster up the courage to get leave, and when he did he slipped on poop on the way out and fell on his bum.

 Excellent. Really great in building confidence. Face fucking palm.

Luckily just a few scrapes, no blood...but he was a bit rattled so I left him for a few hours with hay and decided to come back later to ride.

He was truly excellent for our ride, even with all the buzz and a new place. He was a little tense at first but relaxed into stretchy walk and trot within 5 minutes. A little stiff in the canter, assuming from his little fall, so I just worked him at the trot-which was more than enough!

It was so delicious to ride on solid footing for once. It been 6 months since I've even seen an arena and it was heaven. I almost died of happiness. Like, I think my heart stopped for a second or two when I walked into the arena.

Here's some super grainy, really terrible, self taken video screenshots.

Ugh, he's so awesome

Schooled transitions, halts, being round and through, serpentines and 10, 15 & 20m circles. It was a dream. Bacardi didnt even lose his shit being alone. That horse is a true eventer. He pours his heart into every workout. He was never distracted, not one time while his feet were moving. Phenomenal. Claps for B.

After about 45 minutes the workers showed up and began bringing horses in & he started to lose grip on his sanity a bit. I figured that was a good time to stop, and we called it a day.

For a baby, he's shown up to the party every time. Yeah, hes a bit spastic and has his issues. But for everything he's been through in the last 2 weeks with Yankee leaving, and even getting IN the trailer, I couldn't be more proud.

Little B is going place someday, I can feel it!

How stinkin cute are these nuggets

Tucked him in with his barnmate for the night and left him to mull over the days activities. If horses even do that. Can't wait to go back. Hopefully we can get actual pictures and more fun updates for tomorrow!