Training Apollo

Rhoda arrived shortly after our walk and her first job was to work with Apollo (Lily x Valiant) as he is leaving for his new home in 3 days. He was taken into the barn to fly spray before taking him out to the round pen.

 As long as the trailer was still out, Rhoda just asked Apollo to follow her right in. It never hurts to practice loading. 

 Today Apollo was introduced to the tarp. He thought it was a very scary object but by the end of this session Rhoda had him wearing it and walking on it. 

 We took a short video of the training session today for his owner. 

On the way back to the paddock we decided to take a picture of him by the sign but this funny colt had to stop and admire the sign! He notices just about everything. 

After he was put away Rhoda brought Titiana out for training.

 She was doing so well that Rhoda started putting weight on her back. 

 She decided to introduce her to a rider today except when she went to put the bit in her mouth realized Titiana still has her wolf teeth. The bit was left in but no pressure was put on it. We will wait until Dr. Hoerr comes out for ultrasounds to have the wolf teeth pulled. That means her training will be delayed a couple of weeks. 

Rhoda pulled Indy out, rode her in the round pen with Titiana loose with them then took Indy while ponying Titiana out into the field. 

She was very well behaved. This mare is really ready for a rider but we just have to be patient and get those wolf teeth out first. Rhoda put her away and pulled out Tori. While Rhoda was working with Tori in the round pen I had Indy and her filly in the stall so the filly could nurse before Indy was used for the next mare. Indy is perfect for this work. 

 Tori was well behaved and did everything Rhoda asked of her. I took Indy, untacked her and put her away while Rhoda rode Tori in the round pen both walk and trot. 

 She really didn't do anything wrong. As soon as Rhoda put her away, she got in the skid steer to start moving the bales off the field. We got 30 bales for this cutting and the hay is excellent, fine stemmed and was put up dry with no rain at all.

Rhoda worked on that all afternoon. I went with mom and Joan down to Bartonville bank to get Joan on mom's account. She will be taking over managing the Gulf Shores condo and the check book as I'll be out of commission for a while. 

This evening, right after supper we started moving the rest of the bales off the fields and stacking them in the barn. We finished up just as it was getting dark outside. It is such a good feeling to have hay for the winter. We now have 100 really good quality round bales all stacked inside. I feel RICH!