No Balls for Baby

I called my vet today to schedule Tumbleweed’s appointment for a gelding, but the secretary asked if his testicles had dropped. I wasn’t sure, so I had my husband accompany me to the barn where I was able to hold Tumbleweed while he checked for the baby balls.

Surprise! There were none.

 So, now we wait.

In the meantime, my little monster sweetheart needed help with manners, balls or not. Which isn’t  his fault, we have just been so snowed in, it made training difficult to impossible, and he is a BABY after all.  So. Much. Energy.

Today, we worked on moving in a circle, both directions, on a line, and following me into large puddles and standing. I broke the sessions into three parts because during the first one he just had a helluva lot of energy and needed to work through it.  There was bucking, running, pulling, and rearing, and he worked up quite a sweat. I ended on a positive note and put him back.

Later, I came back out and he had improved 100% following me into puddles, but didn’t want to do a circle on the lead to the right. Again, he did some rearing, he even appeared to be striking, but with the help of a long whip to block him, he finally let me onto his right side and circled right.

The last session, I armed myself with my crop ahead of time. He did excellent into and through puddles, he explored the arena, through tall, wet snow, and he backed up with a wave of the crop. But again, he wasn’t happy with me on the right side and he didn’t want to go right. However, I was faster than him, and able to consistently beat him and stay at his side, allowing me to both push him forward AND keep his head turned in. No rearing. Oh, he thought about it, but that door was closed.

Touché!  I won.

Poor thing looked dejected without all his tricks, but he was also much sweeter.

Now, if those baby balls would just drop down so we can chop them off and turn him out.