Friday Farm Fun- Meetin' of two minds

Sorry for this being so late! My week was a blur and I spaced that today was Friday until I was winding up my ride on Bud.  And what reminded me was the ride! I knew I had to add the adventure to the Friday Farm Fun post.

So, Bud and his sidekicks, George and Sunny are in a small pen with minimal grass and they are getting hay. All three are easy keepers meaning they just look at hay up to their knees and turn into equine bouncy balls with four sticks.

But because they are kept low on the feed, or so they think, Bud believes he's starving when I ride him. He tries to grab at every tall weed that passes his nose or catch me unprepared and stuff his nose to the ground to grab a mouthful of grass.

Tonight I took him in a hay field that was recently cut we there wasn't any distracting tall weeds and I kept a tight hold on the reins. He was not happy to walk through the grass and not eat it. When Bud's in this mood, he shakes his head and body every thirty feet like he's trying to toss off the tack and rider. We had a battle of the minds going around the field with him wanting to go to the tall grass on the edges and me keeping him toward the middle.

At the gate, leaving the field, he turned to go back to the barn and I turned him to go away from the barn. He decided shaking hadn't tossed the bossy person on his back off and decided to do three crow hops. I was happy I'd tucked my feet deeper into the stirrups coming up to the gate, having an idea we were going to be battling on the direction we'd go. Once he stopped hopping in the air, and I had him standing still, he snorted and swung his head the way I wanted and the rest of the ride went uneventful until Tink ran up behind him. He lunged forward, but my new saddle has a deeper seat than my old and I'm lovin' the way I stay in it.

Needless to say, Bud did not get any grain when I unsaddled him. If he tries to dump me he doesn't get a treat.