Whew!

I know it has been a while since I have posted anything here. Two weeks in fact.  Kat is coming along nicely and actually slacking off a bit since he is getting bored going around and around the back pasture/arena. Even throwing cones, buckets and poles out there as obstacles to go through and around, is just not that thrilling for him anymore. He is getting lazy in his work and I really have to push him to get anything out of him.
So Sunday I took him around the arena a few times, we went both directions through the poles in the "L" shape, wove through the buckets and when he was actually a bit tired, I stopped him by the gate to open it up.  One of the mares is right there by the gate and although she clearly does not like him, he thinks he has a chance with her.  He stayed where I left him, while I opened the gate and waited until I told him to move on before going through it.  He tried stopping in front of her stall and with a reminder of him having a job to do, we headed for the driveway gates.

Out the driveway and we headed down the street. There are only three houses on our side of the street. Two on the other side. I figured this would be a good time to walk along behind the cart and go see what he is going to do. The neighbor has some dogs that usually come running out to the fence and bark. I was hoping they would, but they waited until we were almost past before showing up. He stopped to see what the commotion was and decided to poop. Of course he thinks he can't do two things at once so I had to try convincing him he can. 

The neighbor on the corner has about 4 horses in their pasture. All of them came running to see what in the world we were. Kat decided he was all important and started huffing himself up and showing off.  He again got a few reminders of the job at hand and he needed to behave no matter what was going on. We made it to the corner, waited for a car to pass, then made a nice turn around and headed back. another few small reminders of his job and he settled right in, walking along to go home.

He did really well in that he did not get antsy because we were going home. Since the sun was getting hot I needed to rinse us both off and call it good. As we were coming down the street to our driveway, a truck went by and actually stopped to watch us.  Kind of fun, since there aren't too many people in our neighborhood that drive. I know of three actually... 

I need to get Pal back to work and I also need to make replacements for my shaft poles since he stepped on and bent the PVC pipe from the last pair.  I also may hop on and ride him a few times in between too.  The TB mare is getting her feet done on Friday and then she will be ready to go.  I may have to find another harness for her or just stick to ground driving for a while.  Kat needs his feet done and we are entering a Darby competition up north next month.  There's a fun drive the day before and I hope it all goes well.