One Month With Huckleberry

I've had Huck for a month now and I'm loving him more and more each ride.  I'm sure there will be a point when we plateau or decline, but for now I'm enjoying the upswing.

In our month together he's gone from a complete bucking rodeo in groundwork to walk/trot/lope and rollbacks with very little fuss.   He stands tied quietly for the most part and has grown accustomed to having Jackie taken away from him and no longer panics and calls to her the whole time she's gone.  He is slimming down a bit and getting more muscle so he's getting smoother in his gaits which is AWESOME because I miss Kevin's lope so much!  He's holding his lope longer and our circles are looking less like amoebas. His teeth were done this week FINALLY and the dentist estimated about 5 years since he'd had his teeth done.  I was able to feel the before and after and WOOF.  I think I felt a huge difference in our rides after that.  I took a clipper to him Thursday just to see what he would do and I got NO reaction at all, even when I tried the ears!  I don't clip the inside of the ears, but I like a clean shape and he let me accomplish that with zero drama.  I know he was shown extensively so I'm sure he'd been clipped many times, but I know plenty of horses (especially jumpy ones like him) that are a challenge to clip.  Even Kevin gave me a world of trouble when I first tried to clip his ears.

Huck has spooked a few times now: apparently last Thursday the tablecloth on the table in the arena (which has been there as long as he has) was a monster so we've had some moments about that.  I've been able to ride the spooks with no issues so far (*wood*) so either my seat has improved over my year with Kevin or he's just that sturdy.  Or both.

He does not seem to be bothered by anything out on the trail yet.  As I mentioned in the last post, he's gone right into the creek each time I've asked and is happy to lead for most or all of our trail rides.  He's quiet and steady and aside from a snake moving off the path which made us both jump, he's been a solid citizen. Today we led most of the way with one of our trainer friends (he brought a 3 year old over to school), Kevin and his owner and Zip and T in tow.  Huck was the only one who would go into the creek.

For some reason fall is the hardest when it comes to missing Junior.  I think it's probably because that last fall seemed like everything was falling into place.  We did our first Ranch show, he finally started to act like a Western Pleasure horse, we'd just started working on cows and we'd started mounted archery.... and then the colic.  I miss Junior and I'd give anything to bring him back, but I am happy with my new pony.