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!