Omolene

Yeah, today Napoleon ate his Omolene. Scarfed it up in fact! Now, I am sneaking in a coat conditioner. He only has about 100 days to get fat and shiney! Of course now the bugs are hatching out and will play havoc with my grooming plans for awhile. The other thing messing up his pretty face is some halter rubs and a small laceration on his nose. (Somehow, he went "bump" in the night at the beginning of his stay. I swear, all horses need a padded stall.) These are also on the mend. His halter doesn't need to be left on all the time anymore so his nose has time to re-grow hair. He let me halter and catch him easily in his pen today.

Today was a building block on yesterday. I tied him in the barn alley today and saddled him like a big boy. He did great. Also let me groom him and brush his tail out like it was all old news. He wasn't too worried about all the barn activity. My little boy walked by him without any trouble. I picked up all his feet easily. Will continue to work this area a lot, and have Zane and the "hired" man do the same. He will need shoes in another few weeks and will need to tolerate the farrier. His feet are tender when I lead him over the gravel and he will need sliders. (You have to remember, he's been in a holding facility for 2.5 years so his feet are no longer hardened in fact they are chipping just from leading across the gravel.)

I rode him in the little indoor arena at first. Just concentrated on riding straight lines. "Colts" are wiggly at first. Then I worked on side-passing to the left, just a few steps at a time. After a short 20 minute ride, I took him over to the big indoor arena. Of course, this was a much busier area as well as much bigger. He was pretty nervous with the reining manuevers going on around him. He let me mount easy and did his best to keep all 3 other horses in his line of site. I eased him around. He did blow and buck once, 2 quick jumps - if there had been three he would have lost me! After another 20 minutes of walking and trotting, we called it a day.