Good Boy, Ben! Good Boy, Paj!

Bob's Clyde Ben is one smart cookie.  David free-lunged him yesterday, and Ben remembered his vocal commands from last summer.  Ben came to the ranch in May.  We lightly worked him on lunging and some trail-type riding, and stopped when he became ill in August.  By the time he was ready to go back to work, we were in the throes of winter.  To have him get back in the lunge pen after all that time off, remember "walk", "trot", "canter" and "ho", and actually do it, is remarkable! 


You can see David use a little body language to help out with the canter depart, but all the other transitions are spot on!  Good boy, Ben.  Good job, Dave.

Paj and I used the lunge pen today too.  With record heat and a hairy beast, we had a short workout, then worked on our stretchy free-walk-on-a-long-rein.  I like to use the lunge pen for the free walk, 'cause you don't have to think about where you're going on that long rein.  It probably seems odd to folks that you have to work on a "free" walk, but yeah, you do.

Big hug, Paj!

Thanks, Coach!

Enjoy the day, buddy.

The New Kids on the Block

This is our neighbor Kate.  Kate and her husband Mike raise alpacas.  They are big-hearted folks, and when they heard about two llamas that needed rescuing, they didn't hesitate.  But then they learned that the llamas had a special friend - a horse!  Mike and Kate have never had a horse, but the three were inseparable, so they said yes to the horse too!

Mia is a 7 year old mustang/quarter horse cross.  She is sweet and mellow in spite of her abusive past.  David and I get to provide advise and loving!  We are pretty excited.

The young llama is the most at risk.  She is skin and bones.  Kate is an expert alpaca owner, and the little one couldn't be in better hands.  This is one very lucky trio.  We are lucky too to have such good neighbors.