Training Update

I wanted to write down the training progress. So here's the list:

-- Rocket did the 5 mile loop this morning at a good clip. He arrived home sweaty and a little bit out of breath but in general feeling pretty good.
-- Meg also did the 5 mile loop this afternoon not quite so fast as Rocket. She gave Rachelle a hard time on the way up the driveway but after that, Rachel said, she was sensible for the rest of the ride.
-- cocoa did some ring work. He learned how to back up and how to do a side pass! He is careful with his feet and it makes it easy to teach him new motions. He started to learn how to respond to leg pressure and was doing quite well with it in the ring -- not quite so well when we took a brief trail ride. On the ride outside the ring he found it difficult to focus on his rider and instead was looking at everything else in the world.
-- Memphis pulled the cart around the ring and then out and part way up the driveway. After that we had some safety issues because the harness doesn't really fit her and a piece is not attached the way I think it should be to the cart. Looks like maybe some hooks are missing from the cart. Memphis loved being the center of attention and stood quietly to be harnessed, then did her best while she was pulling the cart.

In other news, Rachel found Mimoka up in the tree near the ring meowing pitifully. I called Danny. Getting cats down from trees is something that Danny has proven quite good at and this was no exception. But it posed some interesting problems because the lowest branches were way above even my head.

First Danny tried to walk up a board propped against the tree (we don't have any ladders tall enough) but the board was too wobbly so he wisely got back down. And then he climbed back up the tree next to the tree that Mimoka was in. Mimoka seem to enjoy the company up there in the Heights with her. But neither could Danny reach her nor she reach him, so after a while Danny got back down. At that point I had to go into the house and start dinner. A few minutes after I got in there, however, Danny came running in and up the stairs. I didn't have to ask him what he was after. It was obviously the orange monkey.

Armed with Mimoka's favorite toy Danny went back outside and begin dangling around at the bottom of Mimoka's. tree. Again I had to go back to focusing on dinner. A few minutes later I heard the front door open and Danny come in. I was afraid to look, because I was worried that Danny would be sad about Mimoka being stuck up in that tree as it got darker and darker outside. So from my position at the sink I asked, "Did you get her down?"

"Yes!" he said with well-deserved pride. And there was Mimoka perched in Danny's arms purring like a motor boat.

And just in case you're curious about the monkey, perhaps this video will help.