What rhymes with Apples?!

OK...another hint...look below...

You have to look closely...

But YES..those are freaking dapples on my Laz's back!!!!

NEVER were they there before (in our time together) and I can't believe they are there now!!!

I am taking this as a very good sign that his body WANTS to recover!

DAPPPPPPLLLESSSS baby!!!!! 

So moving on from the dapple excitement  (eeek!) I assumed I was going to have a grooming session due to all the rains but when I got to the barn last evening, it slowly turned sunny and beautiful!

For those green thumbs out there, here is the garden that the BO's and myself/Husband planted on Sunday. Sore hamstrings but let's hope those seeds and plants GROW! 

Vegan wonderland in there people!

Just had to snap one of happy Mason...come on..wouldn't you?!

This photo below was actually a mistake that turned out SO cool. 

A zoom of Laz's chopped of unicorn horn, with all that remains is his crescent star

So, thankfully, even though it was breezy, it wasn't WIIINDY.  So in turn, I had high hopes and was determined to walk Laz on loose reins.  I wanted to see if indeed I was translating my control fears thru a tightly held rope into a tightly wound horse.  

And...he was a total gentleman.  He walked nicely on a loose, double dutch, lead line and we cruised around for about 15 minutes, totally spook free. However the BIG difference was he did pop his head up a few times which in the past would have caused me to pull him back...but instead, I didn't, I just loosie goosed it and sang and told him how brave 'we' are and he calmed right down.  Crazy how these little improvements, can totally work.  So, we were again totally alone at the barn...walking calmly for about 45 minutes.

Angel boy!

He was in a sweetheart silly mood, and kept nuzzling me as we walked from behind, and licking his lips (sweetest sound ever) and doing a few fancy trit trots and wanting to play.  A few minutes later, after working on our "Whoa" halts, and kindly asking for him to back up (he did great), we were stopped and he asked to roll.  When I mean ask, he pawed the ground, looked at me, licked his lips, pawed again, looked at me, and so I stepped back and so "go ahead."

And he did, rolled on both sides and blasted up feeling good with a buck and his Guinea pig squeal "Eeeeeee!"

I offered to let him free lunge (still on the lead but not making him do anything) but he really just wanted to buck once.

Look at how happy he is!

So as we continued to walk around, I allowed him to graze for a minute or so, in the scary corners to encourage him and to reward him.

His face has such character! Looks like he's chewing tabacco

So later on, BO "C" joined us with her gorgeous Ellie, who you may recognize from past photos.  She is Two years old (in April) and "C" is working on making her a bomb proof as possible.  Ellie is a smart, smart filly so she learns quickly, but can also prove to be challenging because she is a thinker.  In the long run, she'll be a great horse.

So we worked on desensitizing with a tarp/baggie thing.

Ellie is quite head shy so "C" worked on that as well

She learned that if she tried to run away or walk away the baggie followed.  If she stopped, so did the bag and she was rewarded.  Ellie quickly learned that getting a carrot was more fun.

PS the smoke is not coming from Ellie, lol

I love how Laz is watching Ellie here

He was really brave with the tarp/baggie.  In about one minute, he was over it and started to play with it.

Another AWESOME thing about Laz...he is 1000% not head shy. I can rub his ears (in fact he loves it) and clip him, etc, he doesn't care.  

So yesterday totally rocked.  

My Bay totally rocked.  

We walked for a total of 2 hours, in the arena for about 45 and the remaining time, around the property on down the residential dirt road on a 'trail' ride.  It totally feels great to walk a calm horse versus a dragon, and it feels good to take our horses on evening walks and get our exercise too!

Basically with Laz's laminitis rehab, and Ellie being only 2, we walk our horses like giant dogs...only we don't pick up their road apples, lol!