The Weigh-In

The words "fatty boobalatty" come to mind here.  :)   Since his momma's been otherwise occupied and we've been bad about getting up north to ride much this summer, Tucker's gotten.... rather plump.  We were wondering just how rotund, so we taped him: 1149 lbs.  Kinda chubby for a 15.2 h horse -- so in addition to Camp's regular activities we've decided to keep a running tally of his measurements.

We awoke this morning wondering how Tucker fared his first night away.  Seems we had no worries -- when we arrived at his field he actually left his food to greet us.  It appeared that he'd very recently been given his nightly rations, and while we hated to interrupt what looked to be a delectable dinner, we had work to do.  He was totally game.

We had another saddle to try and it was unanimous -- the Aunties both like the same saddle, and Tucker appears to be cool with it too!  Erin's had a long-standing love affair with rubber rainbow reins, and thanks to Shanna's generosity she was able to get Tucker hooked on them today as well.

As we'd hoped, Tucker was eager to get to the barn for his one-on-two time.  Not only was he not bummed about being temporarily removed from his dinner, but he was also not phased by getting right to work in the arena.  He understood what we were asking him to do and he animatedly moved from one gait to the next.  In his new tack he acted workmanlike and, in keeping with the big fella's personality, managed a few "I'm-feeling-great" bucks here and there.

At the end of our 45-minute saddle-testing, circle-making, gait-changing ride, we learned about Tucker's new love affair.  Just a few minutes before we were done in the arena he started acting like a stallion -- whinnying, running around with his head up like a giraffe, completely oblivious to the task at hand.....  Tucker has fallen in love.  Her name is Frosty and she's a flea-bitten grey who really couldn't care less about the poor fella.  But he was so concerned about her whereabouts that we decided to walk away while we were all still happy.

At Tucker's insistence we gave him a bath.  After all, he had a hot date back in his field!  The anticipation of his across-the-fence rendezvous with Frosty a bit later caused him to be nice and quiet for his bath. We even got his face, buns and tail clean!

As we headed back to tuck him in for the night he pranced around like a peacock, tail held high, singing at the top of his lungs.  Ahhh, young love.....