School - Day 4

From Bob, Monday, 9/28:

This was a big day for Diego. His feet look like he might have a little thrush. I cleaned them really well, trimmed a couple of "hangnails," and squirted some iodine to kill whatever might be living deep in the cracks. I was doing all this while he was turned out loose, and he only walked away once.

Diego spooked when I dumped the wheelbarrow full of manure, so I stalked him with it until I could wheel it within a foot of his back legs. He overreacted when I tapped him with the crop yesterday, so I spent some time alternating between rubbing him with it and moving him with it.
I started riding him around the back yard. He always starts out skittish and gets better the longer I ride him. He is getting better at the trot-to-walk transitions, but he is also starting to pull on the reins at the trot. I'm still riding him bareback, and he seems to want to go faster than I can sit the trot.

Dovie came out and offered to go for a trail ride, so we headed out. I got Diego to let me open and close the gate from his back, but it wasn't pretty. We ended up going about a mile and a half, trotting maybe 40% of the time.

Diego did great! LaLa was constantly threatening him, so we just let him lead. He stopped and looked when he saw a neighbor walking her loose dog. No problem. Walking down into a dry wash was no problem. It was almost dark when he gave me his first real spook. He sort of lurched forward, stopped, gave me a tiny buck, lurched forward again, and finally stopped. We composed ourselves and headed home. By this time, he was ignoring LaLa when she followed him really close.

He is a little strong at the trot, but he was really relaxed and well-behaved at the walk. The total ride time was 38 minutes. Dovie says he is awesome!