Sam's Fourth Day

Day 4. Sam had an easy day four, in a manner of speaking. He had a play session. Before we got Sam out to work with him, he seemed happy and enthusiastic, ready for a new day, a new lesson. We worked Sam at liberty. This means while he was in the round pen, he worked without a lead-line attached. he walked, trotted, and even loped in a circle for us, without a lead-line. He is SO inspiring, he trys and is so eager to learn new things. All Sam did when we asked him to lope was throw in a few bucks, mostly out of excitement to be going at speed.

Sam reminds me a an elementary student in his first week of school. The first day he was nervous and slightly hesitant, the second day he was still adjusting, but by the third say he starts to get comfortable. When day four finally approaches, he is excited about what is going to happen; he is eager to learn and experience!

Sam is afraid of fly spray. We didn't know he would be afraid of that, but it was a possibility. We thought he could be a bit hesitant, we were not quite ready for him to be deathly afraid. By the end of the fly spray ordeal, he would stand for a couple of drops being dribbled out of the bottle. We will work on this, and make sure Sam doesn't get bitten by too many bugs.

Despite this new information, Sam already has everything he has learned in the three previous days mastered. He was much more willing to pick up his feet for us to hold for a few seconds. Sam, you are ready for more. That is why we then introduced Sam to our favorite item in the barn, the bareback pad. It was good to see Sam was very curious about the pad. It looks just like any other pad to go under a saddle, but it is a bit grippier on top and has a girth that can be attached to it. We are hoping to see Sam allow us to set it on his back for a couple of minutes on Thursday(his day six). We will not try to attach the girth, because we do not want to scare him or rush into it. This could scare Sam very badly if we rush it. The bareback pad is the first step in getting Sam to allow us to saddle him.

Well Sam, you are doing SO well and you are SO cooperative. Thank you for being so great. You will have day five off, because we have to go to a meeting, and you could probably use a day to process all the great new stuff you have learned or experienced.