Hard to find time to post lately

So much going on now that the weather is improving. We have had SO much rain! So, when it is sunny the gardens need tending, the lawn needs mowing, the dogs need long walks. The horses pastured. It is a lovely time of year, but we have had ENOUGH rain! I am wondering if I should rename this blog. It seems that Roscoe is just not the focus lately. He's old and sore and while he sure is the focus of our lives, he isn't the focus of all the training I am doing. I feel bad he doesn't get more training time, but the issue is that he is SO insane when we train and I worry he over-does it. His neck and shoulders are sore and we don't have an explanation other than he is OLD. He is 13/14 years old. Doing REMARKABLY well, but that's pretty old. I try to ask him to do easy things when we train. Like his frog trick. That one is easy on his body. Spinning and jumping and weaving and such, not so good on his old body. Spur has been doing his homework a little. We focuses some on his starts, which are really not much better. I have decided after four months of our "ready, ready, GO" restrained starts that those are not the answer. I give these ideas about four months to see if they will hold up. That one isn't really. I am now of the thought that he needs it mixed up. He doesn't NEED some predictable behavior at the start line. That just ends up becoming boring and TOO predictable. I think he likes chaos. He really does!! The louder and crazier my voice, the more people waiting at the ingate and crowding him, the better. I know that sounds crazy, but that's who he is. He likes chaos. It gets him all pumped. Quiet and calm, not so much. Anyway, our new homework are threadles and pushes. On this video we do some threadle work. He isn't keen on coming into the gap, into me. He would rather take that other jump, not come into the gap. We have some work to do. We also did the course 4 again. He did great!!! I did a "drop-n-go" start. He was fine with that. Silvia thinks maybe I could carry him to the start line. He doesn't like to be carried, so that seems maybe not a great idea, but on occasion maybe it will be?