Saga of The Big Brass - Part 4 - The Moment of Truth

After his two weeks at home waiting for his hooves to heal and allow him to travel with comfort, Brass went back over to Ted Nichols' for the remainder of his training. Since his oddly shaped and distorted hooves didn't want to hold on to the Gloves, I got a pair of Epics for him.

The Epics have the cable system and clamp so they tighten, enabling them to stay on and allowing him to continue with his training. I didn't want him to have too much vacation and forget his recently learned lessons.

After Ted had him back for just a week I went over to ride him. Brass was doing great and I got a "lesson" in understanding a bit more of what Brass knew. I had more to learn to catch up to his level. 

In this last week at Ted's, his final week, Brass was ridden down the road, past the dairy where he thought milk cows were going to kill him. But he lived. After which he was ridden to the Snake River and went wading in the river. Yesterday Ted rode him up on the Adrian hill and we traveled some pretty good trails over ravines and up and down hills. Brass seems to love the trails and Ted has done a magnificent job getting him used to so many things. Now it was time for Brass to "graduate" and for me to take over the reins.

Today was truly the moment of truth, no coaching from Ted, just Brass and I. We trailered out to the Lytle trails south of Vale and off we went. He did superbly although this water tank just didn't belong here as far as he was concerned. Farther down the trail was a huge black tire water tank and he was sure it was going to eat him. But then he discovered it had water in it and then he wondered what the fuss was really about. 

I even took pictures while riding him. 

Christine and Diamond going through the gully ahead of us. They did a great job handling this tough spot that the photo makes look so easy. It really was rougher than that. After 2 1/2 hours we made it back to the trailer and good boy Brass had done everything right! Couldn't have asked for much better.

His reward was going on the small pasture with his buddy Peanut. When I went out to bring them in that black cloud had turned into thunder, lightening and a lot of wind. And Brass was easy to catch and lead into his pen for the night. So very different from what he was a few short weeks ago!! I'm sure I am going to have a lot of fun with this big guy!