A Moon Adventure in the Offing

Last Wednesday, February 13th, was the warm day in the week. What a change! This winter has had more bitter and windy days than I can remember. Not as snowy as last winter, but longer periods of just bitter, windy days.

So Wednesday, Viveka and her two delightful children came over to meet Moon. I had suggested that Moon might work for her. Viveka has been searching for a pack horse for her upcoming trip on horseback from Denver up to the Colorado Trail in the mountains scheduled for June. The trip will be demanding and the horses will need to be very well conditioned to deal with such a trip.

Moon of course, can do the packing. But she needs more training, and she also needs the conditioning to deal with the altitude. I showed Viveka what I had accomplished with Moon so far and of course I had to show them how Moon loved to play "fetch" with cones and food bowls! Viveka seemd to be very taken with Moon! She was blown away by Moon's physical conformation and her mind too.

Viveka's daughter, Mikaela, had fun riding Moon around, first bareback and then with the saddle on. Mikaela is quite a rider. We ground drove Moon with long reins too because I had mentioned that I wanted her to be able to drive. Viveka has driven horses and said she'd help me with that too.

Overall, Viveka was thrilled with Moon. She raved about how smart Moon is, and how well she feels Moon would work out for her trip into the mountains! There will be lots of preparation of course, but today was the day for them to meet and get a feel for each other.

While Moon is used to clicker training, I am confident that she will blend in with Viveka, and vice versa, and that the experience Moon will gain on this Colorado Trail trip will be a terrific foundation for her! It will get Moon used to all sorts of things and she should come out of it a very seasoned and steady horse. I can't imagine a better training experience for her future therapy duties!

I am posting two pictures from the day. Moon loved having all this attention lavished on her and she did a marvelous job the whole time. The day consisted of lots of short sessions with Moon and plenty of interaction with Bailey and Rosa too. I have to say that Ethan, Viveka's 4-year old son, was just terrific. He's a high-energy little guy, and he behaved fantastically the whole, very long day. I was impressed!

In the afternoon, at my neighbor's invitation, we all went over there and Viveka and Mikaela got to ride Reining horses! Rosa gave rides to both Mikaela and Ethan too. It wasn't until after dark that Viveka and her kids finally drove home. What a fun time the whole day had been!