I don’t have any pictures, but I had a proud Mama moment with Cruise this morning. We live on a fairly busy frontage road with quite a bit of traffic. Some big trucks, auto traffic, farm equipment, some pedestrians and bicyclists. Cruise is always turned out next to this road and has mostly gotten used to traffic noises, people parking to watch, and various other weirdness.
This morning took the cake though. While he was out grazing, a road crew started paving around the corner,, kind of out of sight but not out of hearing. He was cool with this, so I figured he’d be ok to ride. Probably. By the time I had him saddled up there was more activity, a couple of trucks parked right in front of the ring, and there were a couple of flaggers wandering around. I hand walked him to the top of the ring by the activity and he stopped with his head way up. I told him he was fine and did a little box breathing and 30-40 seconds he lowered his head and the turned and nuzzled my hand to connect with me. And was totally calm and focused on me for a little more in hand work and then some super under saddle work for about twenty minutes while the chaos was close at hand.
I can’t tell you how pleased I am with him. All the hours and hours of work and attempts at connection that went into him having that reaction. Granted it was in his home ring, on a warm day, but it was truly loud with tail gates banging and equipment and people moving all around. I’ve got to tell you days like today mean more to me than any ribbon. Such a good boy!
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