Goober!

I was thinking about all of the things that I should be grateful for right now, and I wanted to share one of them. Although it may seem silly to some of you, I am SUPER grateful that I have my horse, Goober, up here this semester. My parents brought our 4-year old gelding up during break so I could use him this semester for one of my classes. I am getting to ride him pretty much every day, and he's doing so good! Before this semester, it had been 6 months since he'd been ridden, and even then he hadn't been used a whole lot. But, he's such a fast learner, and he's doing awesome.

For class we have to ride a specific pattern, one-handed, and at a trot the whole time. The trotting isn't a problem for us, but one-handed...before Thursday I'd never ridden him that way. Anyway, we worked on that Thursday during class, a little bit on Friday, and then today he did amazing! I was riding one-handed most of the time, and he was doing the pattern near perfectly! And, when we loped, there was a ton of improvement! Instead of cutting corners so sharp that he almost falls over, he stayed on the outside of the circle, and he picked up the correct leads for me almost every time. It's hard to explain to you how much of an improvement this is and why it's so exciting for me, but just know that it makes me very happy, and he is definitely helping me keep my sanity this semester. He's pretty much one of my best friends, and for that, I am very very grateful.

Me and Goober at the 4-H horse show in 2008.

Goober as a yearling. This is a prime example of why he has his name...

Me and Goober now. I'd say we've made some improvements.