A couple friends and I were able to go to
Kalispell to see Clinton Anderson on tour. (
http://www.downunderhorsemanship.com/) He is a horse trainer
originally from Australia. He is all about gaining your horse's respect. It was a very informative and interesting weekend. I have found a lot of his training techniques to be really helpful with Rio. Rio tends to be a little disrespectful. For example, when I first got Rio I was
enthraled with how friendly he was and how he always wanted to be next to me. That was okay, but I didn't set any boundaries and pretty soon I was been pushed around and shouldered into. That was somewhat uncomfortable and a little worrisome as he is ~ 8 times bigger than me! Anyways, I'm sure anxious to try the things I learned with Rio.
P.S. The picture is of Jen, myself and Courtney in front of Clinton's huge semi.
Calli's new friend is Uncle Ronnie who let her lay on his lap during Friday's all day hunting adventure.
Friday's hunting took us up to the Canadian border, ~ 100 miles total and only ~ 1/4 of a mile out of the 100 was paved. I've never been to Canada so I decided to have Odin take my picture on both sides of the border next to one of the markers. No passport needed!!
Saturday morning Odin and I went out hunting again around the North farm and I shot my buck. He was in a gully and then came out onto the prairie. So, I took a shot, missed and then realized that there were no more bullets in the gun! I couldn't believe it, I meant to check it and so Odin kindly hoofed it back to the vehicle. I knelt down so I'd be smaller and prayed that this buck was the stupidest buck there ever was. Well, he must have been, cause he started walking towards me instead of running away and by the time Odin got back with more bullets, he was about 50 yards away. I got a good shot and he went down. It was pretty exciting, but once he was down, the phrase "now the work starts" came to mind. We finally got him taken care of and back to the Blazer and then I even helped skin him and everything. All this happened before noon! Frankly, I'm pooped!
He was not very big, but for a first buck he's not too bad!
