Gab With Gatz: It Was All Spode's Fault!

Ahhh, my Spode finally came back! Shockingly, she didn't turn up on Thursday evening. I waited and waited, but no Spode. She was hanging out with human friends instead. Sheesh! The nerve of that girl.

Oh well, she showed up today at least.

Woo! Treat lady has arrived!

She brought me in and gave me a good brush first. I'm turning into a teddy bear and shedding the rest of my summer coat at the same time, so I was pretty filthy. Scurf abound. (Ewwww). After I was spit shined and respectable again, she slapped on my fuzzy surcingle and bridle, and we went out to the sand ring to do some training again now that I'm feeling better. I put up a bit of a stink at first because I didn't want to turn the way she wanted me to. I submitted eventually and we had a pretty good session together. She said my whoa was a little shaky, but I said her gathering of the lines was a bit shaky, so there. Tyr's owner came to watch for a bit and we made a decent effort. It was after he left that we had a bit of a surprise! Spode accidentally undid the first line backwards, removing it from my bit first instead of gathering the line through the surcingle ring. I spooked at a chicken at the very moment she realized her mistake, and off I flew. Spode only had one line on my bit but the other one was stuck on the surcingle... we were a bit of a mess. No disasters, she just had to run behind me and keep up for a bit while yelling whoa and only pulling on one line. She apologized after. I think we are both realizing that having another person handy while working with a green bean is quite a useful thing! Ah well, we'll get through it. Anyway, we fixed ourselves and called it quits for ground driving. She led me around for a bit to work on whoa as a voice command, and I was golden (so she says!). Then a bit of trotting in hand, and then she took the line off and we repeated "whoa" work off lead. Then she started to trot hoping I would trot along with her, but I was feeling rather excited by that point and so I took off flying and bucking. So much fun! I love the sand ring. I ran around so much I worked up quite a sweat.

Like my dance moves? I'm actually practicing my flying leads!

After I was done running, she took me out for grass snacking, and then it was back to the night paddock for me. First she decided to measure me again though, because she was sure that I had grown. Yep! I'm just a smidgen under 17 hands now. Spode felt the need to pose with my bum to show off my height.

You're weird, Spode. I thought you should know.

We hung out for a good long while and took selfies. We're just a couple of teenagers, after all (shh, Spode is in denial of adulthood at the moment! 20? Nah, couldn't be.)

Is this how you do a duck face? #YOLO

Then she freaked me out a little bit because I walked away from her to have a roll, but she followed me and surprised me when I rolled over towards her.