We spent the Thanksgiving weekend trailering back and forth to Stepping Stone Farm to school Milton with the carriage. After Greg’s lesson, Coach Courtney was kind enough to let us park the carriage and use the ring while most people were vacationing, eating turkey, watching football, etc. Four days, four trips to the barn.
On T-day itself, we took so long making the adjustments to the carriage that our Thanksgiving meal occurred on Friday. One day, Milton was so good that we were stunned at what a nice horse we had. Another day, not so much good. It was later than usual and Milton took exception to the shadows at one end of the ring (my theory). Here are Greg’s texts to Coach Kate.
Day with Milton all planned. Then he spooks at something only he could see coming out of the the corner. 15 minutes later we changed direction. Oh no, something in the corner from the other direction! 15 more minutes circling in 2nd direction. 5 minutes for cone exercise and done for day. Oh well, the joys of green tb’s.
The first 4 times through the corner, he was spooking. The next 15 times was, ‘I bet you can’t make me go through the corner!’ and he was right. The next 10 times, he wasn’t quite as right.
Lather rinse and repeat other direction.
But, even when Milton was bad, he was bad as a driving horse. There was no why-are-we-doing-this-with-this-horse moments. It’s not how everyone would spend their holiday, but it works for us.
Did I swan about muttering that the original plan was for ME to be coming to SSF to school MY horse? Never. Well, hardly ever.
Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott
Virtual Brush Box 
So, what was for dinner?
Milton seems like such a calm creature. I’m surprised. The learning curve is never-ending.
@Joan: Pork roast
@megmckinneyphotos: Milton is calm right up until he’s not. Then he’s doing doughnuts in the parking lot.