Wow! Good Boy!

Barokko was very very good today!

He had the day off yesterday, today I worked him on the longe. He was very stable on the "bit" in walk and trot, and pretty good in canter also. His transitions were spot on in all gaits, so I practiced trot-halt-trot and walk-canter-walk, which both went really well.

I worked on changing the rein through the middle of the circle without stopping, and we ended up with ca 8m figure-8's (in walk), fluid and flowing with good bend :D

The grass is a little less potent, and he's lost a little weight, he's beginning to look like a horse again, rather than a spotted hippo :P

Barokko was well-integrated in the herd today, phew :)

I worked him in-hand again today, he was more relaxed and attentive than Friday where I last worked with him. It gave me a better feel for the development he's been through while I've been gone. At the end of the session I got on and walked him bareback, it felt really good to be back on him, he's super comfortable without a saddle ;)

We have a lesson tomorrow morning, where I'll ride for the first time (until now we've only worked in-hand in lessons), I'm really looking forward to it :D

Cleanup time!

I had planned to ride a little this morning, but when I got to the pasture, Barokko was standing by himself, covered in sweat marks, and caked in dust. Seems the alpha gelding had been chasing him away from the herd, and Barokko looked exhausted, dragging his feet as I lead him back to the barn.

I decided not to ride since he was so busted. I fed him, gave him a bath, washed his tail, and braided his mane. He livened up while he was getting his spa treatment, and had a sqeaky clean spring in his step on the way back to the pasture ;) The alpha still wouldn't let him into the herd, so he hung out by himself, but I'm sure he'll be allowed back into the group soon.

He's home :)

Drove up to my trainer's place this morning to pick up Barokko. He was just finishing up his breakfast when I got there, but perked his ears when he saw me, and kept turning his head toward me as trainer & I stood talking, so it looked like he remembered me ;)

She worked him in-hand every day he was there, and some days she also rode. She worked him in a cavesson both in-hand and under saddle. She said the biggest issue she had with him was keeping him relaxed and focussed on the job at hand. As soon as he was "in the zone" he was great to work with, a fast learner, physically supple and sensitive... but if he got tense, everything went out the window - yup, I know that feeling ;)

Under saddle her focus was on teaching him to accept contact and rein aids on the cavesson, weight aids, shoulder-in and haunches-out. She was very surprised and impressed by how sensitive he was to the weight aids, but that's also been a top priority for me since day 1! He apparently accepted the cavesson really well, so I'm looking forward to trying it again :)

Barokko for sale???

I was woken up at 5 AM this morning by my phone ringing. I directed it to voicemail and went back to sleep, but then it rang again, same number. Annoyed, I again sent it to voicemail. Third time the number called I picked it up, and the conversation went something like this:

**********
Growwwwl, who is it?!

"Is this Susan?"

yeah, what

"I just wanted to let you kow that I've just bought your horse on xyz.dk for 12.000 DKr."

uhmmmm, you what?

"Your horse is for sale on xyz.dk"

OK just a second, I'm the the US, it's 5 AM, I'm not quite awake yet, I think I must have misunderstood what you just said. Lets start over.

"Oh, sorry to wake you, I just called to let you know that someone has put up a sales ad for your horse on xyz.dk. She has a bunch of pictures of you riding Barokko, and says he's her horse and that he's for sale. She priced him at 25.000 DKr, but then dropped it to 12.000 when I started inquiring about him. Her information about him didn't really add up tho, so I got suspicious, and asked around about the horse in the forum, and one of the other users found your webpage where she had taken the pictures from. She figured out who you were, and then I found your phonenumber in the directory."
**********

That woke me up! She mailed me links to the ad and the forum discussion, as well as a copy of their private message discussions. I quickly established that the person in question is a very bad scammer, seems to live in the other end of the country and doesn't actually know where Barokko is. As soon as I felt certain that Barokko wasn't actually in any danger of being stolen I relaxed, and was able to just feel a little outraged on Barokko's behalf at her setting the price so low - if someone's going to sell my horse, they should at least get a good price for him (12.000DKr = 2500 US$) :D

I contacted the moderators at the site, and they froze her account. I'm going to call the police Monday. As nothing was actually stolen (except for 10-15 copyrighted pictures) and her scam attempt was so grossly amateurish that she was found out within one day of posting the ad, I'm guessing there won't really be any possiblity of sanctions against her, but I'd love for her to get a visit/call from a cop to give her a good scare, and alert her parents to what she's up to on the web (she says she's 16 in her profile, and all of her past threads etc all point toward her being a teenager).

What a way to start the day :/

Updates

I've gotten two short updates from my trainer.

The first few days he was a little insecure in the arena, so had been a bit tense to work with, but as soon as he settled in properly she reported him to be both nice and easy :D Her next message said that he was progressing well, and that she had increased his grass time because he had seemed hungry - hard to imagine Barokko hungry, I know, but that's what she said ;)

Vacation is great, and I've had a blast riding my friend's PSG schoolmaster, a lot of fun playing with a trained horse :D But I miss Barokko, and I'm looking forward to getting a full report on what he's been up to, and to get back to work with him again :)

He's off!

Cleaned him up, braided him, packed up all his stuff, and he was ready to go. Lead to the truck, let him get a good hard look at it, a little pat on the butt and up he went. He stood quietly the whole ride, except for a few whinnies ;)

When I unloaded him I lead him directly to his paddock. He walked right in, sniffed hello with his neighbors on both sides, and then tasted the local grass. He'll be turned out in a big grass pasture during the day, and in the paddock at night.

I just got a text from my trainer, she said he had been calm and relaxed all afternoon, and he had already become good friends with a mini gelding ;) I'm glad he's so easy-going, he always settles in quickly when I take him to new places, that's one less thing to worry about.

There won't be much news here for the next couple of weeks, while Barokko will be working hard and I won't :D