More about my solo day

So, the day was great yesterday. Team Tucker did really good. Of course he is Tucker so I had no doubt.

I did have just a bit of trouble loading Tucker in the morning. It took three tries.

I managed to drive very smoothly.

When we first got out of the trailer, Tucker was rather high headed. I walked him around and let him take in the sights. He did settle down nicely.

He looked around like "What kind of event is this? Where's the cows?" Made me laugh.

For awhile a bunch of the horses were squealing and calling to each other.

A number of people wanted the horses to touch noses. I quickly decided I didn't really like that when Tucker stomped his foot at one of the minis while nose sniffing. He doesn't really need to be making friends with other horses.

It is easy to feel awkward when teenagers look better than you in the saddle :)

There are a lot of really nice horse people out there.

One gal I have known for awhile was very encouraging. She told me that I am doing great having had Tucker for only 4-5 months especially. She knows where I started :) She encouraged me to keep on doing groundwork. Made me feel good.

Several people kindly showed me how to get Tucker to do certain maneuvers. I appreciated their kindly attitude.

I talk to Tucker and a lot of people do not talk to their horses. "Good job, buddy." "That's right, we got this." "Move your hind end." "Riding is supposed to be fun, Tucker." Maybe it is a bad habit?

I was gratified to see that Tucker had one ear on me a lot of the time. [Even when I wasn't talking to him.] It is a great feeling to have your horses attention.

I remembered to 'wake him up" before asking him to do something after just standing around.

The side pull bridle is making communication a little different than the snaffle.

I made a rookie mistake when I loaded by myself at the end of the day. I tied the rope inside the trailer instead of outside the trailer. I then had to get into the trailer to untie at home. Tucker wanted to back out and was crowding me. "Don't get on top of me!"

I had the door only half open since I didn't want him to try to back out until I was ready. I then had to tell him to hold still while I carefully reached over to push open the door the rest of the way. He then turned himself around in the trailer and came out head first.

It's Tucker so we did fine but there is definitely a learning curve. This is the first time I loaded and unloaded by myself with no one to close the door for me.

Next time, I will quickly thread the rope out the bars, get out fast to close the door and go around the outside to grab the rope and tie it.