Trax Battles Horse Eating Monsters

Today was a good training day. 
Trax was terrified of the horse eating Kitties who chose to hang out in the arena today by the table saw that the owner has set up in one corner.  He is building a tack room, so although it is pretty much out of the way, you still have to ride past it.

I pretty much had the place to myself this time so it was kind of nice.

We started with the lateral bends and then went right into our S-walk, back and forth just getting him good and soft.  Worked on the wall with his leg yields and he did that part fantasticly.  Although I still cannot get a leg yield while walking forward yet, which I suspect is my fault.  I think I am asking in correctly. 

Trax kept trying to hide from the horse eating kitties, so I tried to make him go up to the table of tarps and hardware and tools.  He fought me every step of the way.  He has never been bothered by any of it before.  Heck, last time the owner was actually running the table saw as we went past and it never even phased him!

Since I was not getting anywhere by trying to force him to go up to them, I decided to try a different approach.  First we went to the bridge, and he fought me there too.  I guess he figured since he got away with it once he could try it again. Well since I have had him on the bridge many times, I was not falling for it so we argued for a minute and then he went. We did that several times in different directions, then I asked him to canter, and then we did not stop for a long time.  When we did stop, it was right next to the big bad monsters, and we rested.  Suddenly he was a little less afraid.  Then we cantered the other direction for a while and stopped to rest again, right next to the monster. 

We went on to do a lot of walking and asking for a stop with my seat, and very little rein, which he was really getting the hang of, but the only time we rested was next those cats.   By time we were done he was prepared to walk around behind in between the table and the wall. The cats were all playing and sleeping on the table.  I asked him to go through and he started to go without a fight, so then I stopped him.  The max distance between the wall and table saw was only about 6 feet, and the picture in my head of a cat running under his feet and spooking us into that saw was not pretty. I felt that since he was willing to go we had accomplished our mission and there was no sense in being stupid just to prove a point.

We practice stopping and leg yeilding a bit more, and ended on a positive note.  I will say that I was a little perplexed because after the ride he was only willing to take one treat.  He turned down the second one.  I figured that maybe he was thirsty and I was right. 

When I got home I started cleaning the stalls and notice that his and Danny's water was really icky, so I threw the hose in to run it over and clean it some.  Then a nice little horse "apple" floated to the top.  There was poop in the water!!!  No wonder he was thirsty!  Since it was full there was no tipping it over, I had to run and grab a bucket and bail out the water till I could move it.  I got her all nice and cleaned and boy those two did not waste any time getting up there to get a drink.  This is what I hate about winter.  It is dark when I leave in the mornings and dark when I get home.  I had no idea their water was icky until today. I have got to get some lights out there. 

Now the question I have is this...did someone accidentally poop in the water or did I get that in there when I was cleaning stalls.  Sometimes I over throw the wheel barrow.  

Anyway I am glad that it is all cleaned and they are happy.  And I am even more glad that the monsters did not eat Trax!