Here’s what went viral.  A beautiful country scene with quite a few trees.  “CRACK!”  The crack of a bull whip.  Thundering hooves.  Seems like several minutes of thundering horse hooves.  We anticipate seeing the horse come thru the tree line.  Finally, we see the horse galloping through the tree line headed our way.  The horse gallops to a horse trailer and hops in!  “Wow,” we all said as we shared it with friends.  This was Australia and the bull whip cracker was a Pat Parelli student.

I replied to all my friends who shared this with me, “Someday, that will be Lucky Star”.

It happened tonight, Lucky Star style.  I had just fed the three horse herd about an hour prior and now it was time to ride.  Lucky Star was forlornly standing in the far pasture on the dam.  His herd of mares were across the lake happy with their own company.  I called to Lucky, “Lucky!”  I added, you should know better than to come as I’m planning on riding you. Surely, he would be smart enough to know work was afoot.

I went into tack room to get grain.  I would have to walk out to the pasture and tempt him to come to the barn.  I went out into the barn and Lucky was on his way to the barn!  He was coming!  Lordy!

I thought, “Now might be the time for trailer loading at liberty!”  I opened the stall door, and quickly ran to put the grain in the trailer.  Lucky  came through the stall door and now he was headed towards me and the trailer.  He headed right for the trailer and loaded himself.  He found his grain.  I shut the trailer door and it was off to ride.  Lucky Star got much rubbing and petting tonight while we were riding.  He didn’t have to work very hard to earn those rubs either.  We also got done early.  He barely was sweating tonight when I took off the saddle.

Plus now that he has stopped his nipping an searching my body with his active lips, I can pet him without one hand acting as a guard against nipping.  Another amazing change in Lucky is that he no longer mouths his bit, the reins, the bridle etc.  His mouth is quiet.

Lucky Star no longer acts like he’s going to leap on another horse and bite them.  He is quiet when another horse gets close to him.  I can now trust him not to take a bite out of a nearby horse.

Lucky has impulsion most of the time with only infrequent argument.  Lately I have been backing him in a circle when he makes a strong argument about moving forward.  He has noticed!  We go forward now when I ask!

We are finally ready for the “on the rail” show ring!  It’s taken three years to get here!

Nearly Summer in Kansas City land.  Lucky Star and I went at it this morning about 11:00 till after 12. We cantered. We zoomed around. We played pair class with Karin. Something sensational happened with our pair exercise with another gelding.  Lucky Star did not pin his ears and threaten to eat Karin’s gelding.  We rode close together without a Lucky pinned ear swishy tail non verbal war.  I might survive being in a horse show rail class!

I was starting to feel like a heat stroke victim, so we loaded up and came home. I opened door to let Lucky out while I got the hose ready. Lucky just stood in the trailer. Usually,his front feet leave the trailer and he’s eating grass before I can get the trailer door fully open. Today, I had to lead him out, and that was after I got the hose ready. He did perk up when he got his cold bath. Now he is the King of the Pasture again and I’m Queen of the Recliner! Lordy, it’s hot/humid out there.

I was thinking more about how he has improved lately and realized something has been missing for a while.  His mouthy mouth is missing.  His mouth used to be constantly jab-exploring my nearest body parts with an occasional nip.  I am constantly on guard when that mouth is in range of a body part.  When I put his bridle on, it’s difficult to get the bit near his mouth because the mouth has grabbed any part of the bridle that came near his mouth….bridle top, fastener loop, rein etc.  When I ride, he’s trying to eat the sides of the bit or he gets a rein in his mouth.

Today, I realized that this behavior is missing.  I’ve forgotten to be on the alert for his mouth to touch me.  I can put on the bridle without trouble and he no longer grabs a rein when I ride.

Good Lordy!  I am winning!  He no longer is trying to win the control Susan contest (with his mouth)!

Lucky Star has a two foot slide stop from a slow walk.  You think I’m exaggerating!  OK, try this… Lucky Star can do a slide stop at the slowest walk speed that exists.  He can almost do a slide stop from a halt.  He’s got the chunky four corner square body and conformation to do this.

So that’s why I was really surprised when our slide stop evaporated at the Cow Clinic.  It turns out, Lucky loves to move when he’s dealing with other horses and cows.  Stopping fast isn’t on his mind.  Our “set and stop” was a slow down and come to a gradual stop.

However, in the afternoon when we were cutting cows in a big round pen, he was nearly perfect.  Lucky did listen to my body when I wanted to stop.  We don’t have the get up and go to stop a cow that really wants to get back to the herd.  But we can move a cow around really great at a walk.  Cow owners like to move cows at a walk.  It keeps the meat on the bones.

Then it was time to let a cow out of the round pen, take the cow to a nearby cone and herd it back.  Lucky and I were first to do so and we did a darn good job of it except the little cow decided it wanted to go to the far end of the pasture to visit the bull and the other cows across the fence.  So Lucky got stuck out in the far away end of the pasture.  He didn’t want to return to the other horses nor move around at the far end of the pasture.  He was mentally stuck.  We had the bull behind us and no other horse for back up support.  Sadly all the other people managed to get their cows to the cone and back.  It was a long time before my newest #1 best friend, Edna, came out to rescue us.  She came out, got the little cow out of the corner and then came over to have her horse reassure Lucky.  Lucky was able to follow Edna and we were 2nd backup to herding the little cow back to the pens…except wait!

A couple more people lost their cows to the far end of the pasture and I decided that Lucky and I should help them herd the cows back…and we did.

There is no argument in Lucky in Cow Clinic Day.  There’s no slide stop in him either.  Lucky Star loves being the big dominant boss in a cow clinic!  It ended well!