Jackpot!

Every time I ride River (okay, so as of today that's 3 times) I am shocked by what a good boy he is and I get more and more convinced that I hit the jackpot with him. I rode him around the ring for a few minutes today and then took him out around the property. We walked through the yard, down the driveway and back, and I got him to trot a few steps. Our very first problem arose when I took him on the motocross track. He, um, didn't understand how to go *down* a little hill. Seriously. I confess, I got nervous and bailed. I hand-walked him back and forth over the hill a few times and called it a day... mostly because it was just too much trouble to go back to the mounting block. But hey, our biggest problem so far has been getting confused about going downhill. I can deal with that. He wasn't actually bad, I'm just a wimp.

The good thing is, I finally got to use his pretty accessories!

Real men wear pink.

After our ride, I made sure his legs were clean and greased him up with Vaseline. Poor guy is a little sensitive to the mud. And he gets a crapload of mud on his head and around his ears, then he gets mad at me for *gasp* brushing it off. Granted, Riv's "mad" is holding his head up and trying vaguely to get away. But still. Dude, if you don't want me to brush your face, then stop getting it caked in mud! Not rocket science! Some of the hair is coming off with the mud, so I rubbed in Gold Bond medicated powder in case there's any skin funk going on... if nothing else, the powder will create a bit of a barrier to keep mud for sticking as much. River's a bit of a delicate princess, unfortunately.

He's also not gaining weight as quickly as I would like. Big D's is doing free shipping on FOB items... so I ordered 5 gallons of Cocosoya oil for him. And 20 pounds of a multivitamin. That's going to be fun when it arrives... something like 60 pounds of horse supplements.