Alan's big deal

So maybe seeing Alan being led across the corral away from his buddies isn't a big deal to you,

but it's a very big deal for Alan. Yeah, and for me, too.

In the five years that Alan and George have been a part of my family, I have not been able

to train them to walk on a lead line over any distance, let alone separate them by more than 10 feet.

Once Lucy arrived and my attention was refocused on riding, I gave up trying.

After all, their job was to make me laugh and smile – they needed no further training for that.

But lately I got to thinking that maybe it was time to try again. There was something in the way

Alan looked at me when I would go out to get Lucy to tack her up that said, "my turn, my turn!"

Last week, I put the comealong hitch on Alan, and we've been enjoying short walks around the corral. 

Yesterday, we ventured further.

Me: Come on, Alan. We've got fly masks to find.

Me: Stop eating the rope, please. You'll get lunch when we're done.

We didn't find any fly masks, but we did discover the jolly ball that's been missing for months.

I'm not sure why we're successful now when we haven't been so many times before. It's probably a combination 

of Alan being older, me being wiser, and the comealong hitch being the right tool. 

Or maybe Alan would rather be with me than George because he knows I won't chew on his face 

and rip off his fly mask. Whatever.

George and Hank seem more upset about Alan leaving them than vice versa.

And there's no doubt in my mind that Lucy is jealous.

For now, we'll keep walking farther and staying away from the herd longer.

Who knows where that will lead us?

We'll worry about it once we've found all the missing fly masks.

p.s. If any of you want to learn more about the comealong hitch – how to tie it and use it – 

email me at the7msn at gmail dot com. Justina and I made a video, and I'll give you the link and password to watch it.