Bruja here……

With,…..

Your Monday Morning Bru!

I’m feeling good today, happy and secure. It’s because of “herd”. Herd gives us stability, safety, community, support and predictability. If I was alone ( almost the worst thing that could happen to a horse ), I would be pretty scared and confused.

I feel like the world has gone a bit crazy. We had about a week of spring weather. Beautiful days full of sunshine and warmth. Naps in the sun…… Springtime was here!

Now we have snow and winter again. It started yesterday and is still snowing. Fortunately, it’s not too cold and we have our nice barn, the Hayhut and,…..herd! Our herd is small, only nine of us. Of the nine, only four of us is horses. That’s ok because our spirits are the important part. We are meant to be together. Being part of the herd keeps us happy.

Im extra happy today because the picture I put in His head worked last night. He did almost exactly what I wanted. Just not enough of it.

In the late afternoon, while She was away doing human stuff, I had Him bring my hackamore and bareback pad. In the paddock He put the pad on and then the hackamore. I love my hackamore and I help Him put it on me. I push my nose into the opening and hold my head so he can get it on just right. I like the way He fixes my forelock and mane under the hanger so it is comfortable and looks nice.

With the reins arranged just so, ( He puts the lead rope part of the mecate into a loop on the bareback pad to keep it out of the way ) He then climbed up on the divider panel. I love this part too. I know what to do, He doesn’t even have to use His mouth sounds. I used my “near side” this time and got right next to Him so He could just swing His leg over and sit on me. He makes a point of getting on me from either side. He says that’s important to be versatile and do things from either side.

Almost all the ice is gone now so we sided up to the gate and unlatched it. I the did my usual gate trick and opened it. This time I used my nose to nudge it open and did the same to close it after we were through. I love gate tricks. We then walked over to the “gate” to the round pen.

There’s no real gate to the round pen, just a place where we open between two panels. He unlatched between the panels and then had me use my butt to push the panels apart so we go through. Im good at this. Going through narrow places and panels that made noise used to scare me. Now I know that I can be the boss of the panels.

We played with my favorite toys,…..the traffic cones! We ALWAYS play with the cones because it so fun for me and it pleases Him. I love to please Him.

After playing a bit, we did our tour of the “across”. Trees to go around and branches to go under. Big and little roots to step over to build my confidence and coordination. There’s lots of natural obstacles to navigate and I like that. It’s kinda like when I was with my mom. I remember and like the forest. He says someday we will do riding in the big forest.

When we came out of the “across”, we rode down to the house. No snow or ice on the ground now! ( this was before it started snowing ). I was so happy I couldn’t keep from trotting. It felt SO good. ( I did trotting in the across too )

I went to the usual place we do grazing for green grass. Alas, NO green grass yet. That made me a bit sad. I did get a couple bites of old brown grass. ( it’s better than nothing! ) Then we trotted back up towards the paddock and just kept going. Up the “tunnel” trail. Up there is a tiny bit of snow, unmelted in the shadows. Not much because the tunnel trail isn’t much of a tunnel right now. With no leaves on the bushes and trees it’s pretty open. I like that better. I can see more and feel safer from being attacked by scary monsters. ( not that I’ve ever seen any monsters there, lol ).

We turned around by the close neighbors house. I was happy to see no ice on the road up there too. I think we’ll be getting more riding in these days.

Back at the paddock, He had me side up to the round pen “gate”. He wanted it closed so, with me next to the panel, He reached over and pulled the panel to the closed position. I was a bit skeptical of this. It made clanging / rattling noises that concerned me some. We did this, open and closed a few times for practice so I could get used to it. Im pretty brave on this kinda stuff and He likes me to learn new ways of doing things. I was happy to learn. I like learning. He even latched the chain that keeps the panels together. That didn’t bother me at all.

Back to the paddock and He had me open and close the gate by myself again. Im so happy we can do this now that the footing is good. He did His usual dismount by swinging his leg forward over my neck and sliding off my near side. I like that dismount better than when He swings His leg back over my butt to get down. I don’t know why but the leg forward just feels better. With my tack off, He thanked me with treats and used His mouth sounds to let me know how good I was / am and how much He loves me.

Well, this morning, He brought our breakfast alone. She is away for the morning. Everything was pretty normal otherwise. We have a new bale in the Hayhut so we were not too hungry. The only thing different was that Luna was kinda spicy this morning. After our mash, she ran around some like she has extra energy. She even chased Roona and Taiga a little. She was feeling good too. I’ll put a picture in His head to ride both of us today.

Now the sun is out and shining nice. It should be kinda warm in the sun today.

Soon again and,….

May you be happy and get a nap in the sun today.

🙏❤️🐎🐎🐎🐎🐕🐕‍🦺🐕