Cruz: Let the games begin!

I started working with Cruz in earnest last night.  The bad news: he sure has a stubborn streak!  I am used to Cash; he already knew how to lunge when I bought him and he's actually quite cooperative and respectful; the more I work with other horses, the more I appreciate Cash.  Cruz and I will get there too, it will just take more time and effort than I expected.  Cruz has so many good attributes ... and even his stubbornness could be a good thing if channeled in the right direction, so I believe he's worth the effort.  Working with a younger horse that has less training will also be a good learning experience for me; I'll try not to ruin him!

The good news is that I built my round pen on the weekend (almost, need to liberate 3 more corral panels to finish it) and fill in a couple of big-ish holes that were left behind by some sort of wild creature.  I've been meaning to do that all summer. I built it near the arena which is out of sight of the sacrifice pen; Cash and Cruz are quite attached so I think/hope he will be less distracted when I work him away from his buddy.  And its not a bad thing for either of them to be separated once in a while.  As well, I'm not sure if he's used to the lunge line so using the pen without the line might be a better way to get started.  I will feel more confident riding him in the smaller area too when we get to that although the ground is harder there than in the arena so an "unscheduled" landing might not be very pleasant.

There's not a lot of daylight now before or after the work day so not sure how consistent I will be with this but I'm going to do what I can whenever I can.  Something is better than nothing ... and so far I have done basically nothing with Cruz since I got him (except one ill-fated trailer loading training session; I had to abandon that when the boarder showed up in the middle of it and all the horses got amped up almost instantly; no point continuing when they are like that.)

On another subject, I think I have found a new farrier, a recommendation from my Aunt.  He has been doing my cousin's mares for a long time and finally went and got some formal training to do it full-time.  Cash is not due for another 2 weeks but Cruz is *really* overdue so I'm going to get both done at the same time to synchronize their schedules.  If this guy does a good job with Cash, I won't have to trailer him to Brooks all the time; that was inconvenient but it was worth it to keep his feet in good shape and being hauled regularly wasn't a bad thing for him either.  Cruz can't be hauled anywhere right now, we're still battling that one out (its that stubborn streak!) so taking him to Brooks wasn't even an option.  I had to cancel 2 appointments for him because of that!  Thus the round pen.