That Do or Die List

The Adventures of A Horse Crazed Mind came up with the great idea to make a do or die list when I was in my funk....I had to stop that list too...it was giving me a headache-LOL. Just kidding Horse Crazed...it was a good idea. Actually, my lists consist of things that have been waiting for years to get done. Not kidding...YEARS!! So if they have waited this long, what is a few more months...or another year? Well, cause things are kinda starting to fall down around here. A place can only go so long without maintenance and shit just sorta starts falling apart. But we are making a dent. Honestly! The first year home was pretty much a clean-up year. Strangely enough jobs are so much easier when things are cleaned up. Now, it is time for big projects. So today we tackled a fenceline that has been waiting for about 4 years to get done.

But first...Red Dog wants to show off his new ranch job...

See Dad, I am a real ranch supervisor now...mom let me drive the 4-wheeler!
Kidding! But he did learn how to ride behind me on the 4-wheeler today. Fatty don't have much for balance though, so it was slow going-LMAO.

Anyway, here is the "needs to be built" fenceline...

For the last 5 years it has been a zig-zag of panels. Not that they were going to fall down or anything, but it took extra panels and created lots of little nooks that one horse could get another into and take a swipe at them. Horses are jerks that way!!

We killed two birds with one stone...the "big" tractor hadn't been used in about a year and machinery goes to pot if it isn't run fairly regularly(who knew?), so Steve put the battery charger on it and pretty soon it was fired up and ready to level the ground for us...

Both boys were supervising this...

Then it was time to unload this little sweetheart...

Oh yea!! Nothing beats having a post hole digger that doesn't include me being the operator. I really don't like to build fence. It is one of my least favorite tasks. Good thing, I'm a good "Go-For"-LOL. And Steve showed me how to drive the "big boy" tractor too.

Almost finished...

Voila!!!

A beautiful new fenceline. Safe for horses and strong enough for cattle.

But we weren't quite done. There were a few "leaners" in the existing fenceline...

But not anymore!

See this lovely mess? Yep, it's next on the list. It is a mess of fence, panels, wire and hog panels...
Mom and Steve are designing what mom wants to do with it. Hey, I don't care...just as long as he brings that skidsteer with the post hole digger back when it is time to do it!!

And on the way out of the yard...

Awww...he's a baby. Definitely not big enough to shoot for a couple of years. But, there are two big ole' boys hanging out around the house...muahahaha! Hopefully, I can catch them with the camera tomorrow morning. I saw them this morning, but didn't have the camera out. They don't hang around long, those big guys.

Now I gotta go...I am scheduled to have Megan stomp on my back again. I wished they could invent some sort of a machine that would tamp those posts tight too. Now wouldn't that just be the cat's meow-LMAO.

Cleaning Up The Loma Ranch

Remember the 1/2 torn down barn at the Colorado house?

It's all gone!!

With the help of a skidsteer...

Look at all the room!

The addition of a one car portable garage makes for a great place to store the Mule, the lawn mower and all the odds and ends...

I can't believe how much difference getting rid of that barn and corral in the middle of the property made. Now there is room for the new shop and a portable barn with corrals!! A huge step forward toward getting this place like we want it.

Mostly Fixed Up

Almost as good as new. Who needs a chiropractor when you have a 104lb. dynamo who is willing to stomp on her momma's back? Not me! Yes, finally I could take it no more and asked Megan to walk on my back. A few snap, crackle and pops later...relief.

That coupled with a few days of horse vitamins and I am almost as good as new. Probably as "new" as I will ever be. Shhhhhh...don't tell anyone, but I have helped myself to Lamphley's Vitamix quite a bit over the last year. Lamphley does not endorse this!!!!! After talking to the company over the phone several times to get the correct dosage for my dog, who had Valley Fever and a cat with a broken leg, I asked them if there was anything in there that would hurt a person. They said No, BUT it was not approved for human consumption by the FDA, blah, blah, blah.

It took a little trial and error(too much will make you turn red and your ears will burn like crazy for about 15 minutes) and I came up with the correct dosage and WOW does it ever add the energy. Sometimes it just take a few days to get the old immune system built up again. Caffeine has never done the trick for me as far as the Zoom-Zoom. I can drink it all day and night long and nuthin!!

Now, I'm not endorsing that anyone should do this, especially if you have other health related issues, but it sure does the trick for me...and it cured my case of Valley Fever too. Huh? Three months of Vitamix 2-3 times a day, with no possible damage to my liver or kidneys or a year or so of Sulfa based antibiotics that can cause liver and kidney damage...not exactly rocket science.

Today, a good start on mom's projects....tomorrow, we will be going full bore. I may even have some pictures to share-I messed with the camera a bit and can get it to function sporatically. That will have to do until I get somewhere to replace it. All in all, not to bad for a Monday!

Fizzled Out

This week seems to have been a complete fizzle as far as getting anything done. The only things I actually accomplished was hauling out a load of yard debris, bales moved to town and 3 horses trimmed. Sounds productive on paper, but really it is just a drop in the bucket. A very tiny drop!!!

Chris got VERY ambitious at his house though! Holy Moly, he sent a few pictures to Megan's phone and the place is looking great. I need some of that ambition to head this way. On a happy note-he is going to start posting on the blog too-Yaaayyyy!! Wonder if I will have to change the name of the blog to...Two BrownEyed Cowgirls and One Biker Boy? LOL. Note in the About Us section(to the right) the addition of the "Loma Ranch".

I think part of my lack of ambition has to do with the fact that my back is killing me(I need a chiropractor worse than my horses) and quite simply there is just to much to do. I get rather locked up mentally when things get overwhelming and sort of have to go through a "do-nothing" faze before I get pissed off at myself enough to get my butt back in gear. Of course, a back that feels like it is on fire...NON-STOP has a way of slowing a person down too.

I keep making lists of things that need to be done before winter sets in...ugh, so not ready. I have to stop because the lists depress me. Some help is on the way though. The guy I work for occasionally(the roofing job) has some time and mom has hired him to work on some fencing projects and other repairs. Hopefully next week finds me more ambitious. Well, even if I don't feel ambitious...I will be required to be there to help so that might break this funk and get me back on track.

It Must Be The Season...

Seems everyone is camera shopping...and so am I!! I can't get Megan's digital camera to work anymore. Crap, crap, crap!!! The lens was getting sticky and now it won't do anything. I can't get it to turn on or show pictures or even beep.
Chris bought the little Samsung for Megan last year because she loves to take pictures. Well, after I started my blog...I got hooked on taking pictures. Now I feel lost without a camera.

As in...today I was headed to mom's to dump the pickup load of yard cleanings and there was a huge snapping turtle on the road. I turned around to shoosh him off the road and no camera to take a picture of him. Damn it!! Tomorrow is the Homecoming Parade and no camera to take pictures...double damn it!! I got so used to pulling that little thing out and snapping pictures of anything that struck my fancy. I haven't told Megan that it is dead yet...she is going to be devestated.

I think I am going to buy a "cheapie" to replace this one, because I am pretty sure that hauling it around to the rodeos and horse shows with all of the dust is what ruined it. Still, a $100 bucks isn't exactly cheap.

Does anyone know if these cameras can be taken apart and cleaned? Not by me!! But do camera repair places work on them? And would it be worth it, dollar for dollar to try to get this one repaired vs. buying a new one?

Megan wants a "fancy" digital camera because she wants to go all "artistic" and stuff, but me I really liked the little Samsung that Chris had originally bought for her. It took nice pictures and videos and I liked how easy it was to enlarge and crop pictures right on the camera. That is about the extent of my photographic skills.

Until I get another one....I am either going to have to reuse pictures or go without. Man, I am gonna miss waiting for blogger to upload pictures(snark). Drat the luck!!

The Need For Speed

You guys touched on a subject that is near and dear to my heart! The need for speed in my family's breeding program. My step-dad used to say that "There is no such thing as a horse that is too fast". I have to agree! Cutting horse and probably Working Cowhorse people may disagree with me on this point...There is such a thing as a horse with too much "cow". Having a horse that will watch a cow is important to us, but too much of a desire to work a cow makes it awful hard to get things done. So we try to select bloodlines that are "cowy" but not so aggressive that they can't think of anything except getting into the dirt and working a cow back and forth.

But about that "bred to run" thing...
It has always amazed me how two sires, noted for their speed and for producing speed became the "magic cross" that created an entire line of ssssllllloooowwwww moving horses. Individually, they sired Triple A running horses. Crossing their bloodlines produced Triple A running horses. And yet, most of the AQHA show world rides their bloodlines in the slowest class possible-Western Pleasure.

I'm talking about Three Bars...

And Leo...

Boy, they don't look much like modern day Western Pleasure horses do they? But their blood created one of modern day Western Pleasure's most notable founding sires, Zippo Pat Bars...

ahhh...humm....A Triple A Race Horse!!!

And heaven forbid...Some fool crossed that running horse on one of those nasty foundation-bred mares and created, Zippo Pine Bar...

Pardon my sarcasm, when it comes to how a lot of people perceive foundation bred horses. The Quarter Horse started out being bred for one thing and pretty much one thing only...speed! Those guys back then, liked a good looking horse as much as we do today, but they certainly did not discriminate against an ugly sucker, as long as he/she was fast enough to win. That is why you see lots of line-breeding and in-breeding when you start looking back at bloodlines. These guys were trying to "fix" a certain characteristic and that was speed. People are still doing the same thing today...people pick a few bloodlines that work well for what they want them too and they continue to cross those lines trying to "fix" certain characteristics...cutting horses, reining horses, western pleasure horses...color breeders. We aren't any different now that they were 100 years ago. I just don't think we are as good at it as they were back then.

Anyway...
Apparently, by the time Zippo Pine Bar's foals took over the western pleasure ring people were realizing that this "fast horse going slow" thing was working. The best breeders probably also were noting that fast and foundation were going hand in hand. So the next generation of pleasure horses created included Zippo Pine Bar's son, Zips Chocolate Chip...
I really like this horse's bloodlines. They took "run" and added even more. Zip's dam's pedigree includes Jaguar(AAA), Leo, Flying Bob and Chubby right there in her first 5-generations. Well, heck, everything on that mare goes back to foundation running stock.

Now Zippo Pat Bars would have been renowned for creating a line of western pleasure horses if the only one he had ever produced was Zippo Pine Bar, but he didn't stop at just one. He proved that is wasn't just a fluke by creating a multitude of western pleasure greats. He also produced; Superior Halter offspring, NRHA money earners, NCHA money earners, race money-earners, and on and on and on.

Another notable son of his is The Invester...

The Invester's dam was an intensely line-bred Peter McCue mare. She was also a grand-daughter of King-P234. Now there is often a misconception that King horses can't run. Honestly, the reason this happened was because King's offspring and descending lines were noted "cow-horses". By the time King became famous, a lot of the spotlight was off of the race-track and in the arena and show ring. Crossed back on running stock, the King-bred horses could run. But that is a story for another day.;) However, Peter McCue was a race-horse and he begat race horses. If you look at the bloodlines with Peter McCue, you find that they crossed these horses back on themselves to the point where most breeders were probably holding their breaths that they weren't gonna get a 2-headed, 6-legged monster. They wanted to "fix" the speed that the Peter McCue line produced.

Now, I don't think that Zippo Pat Bars' legacy was an accident. People obviously thought at the time that this cross of Three Bars and Leo was a good thing. I think they also realized that certain crosses, what we now consider foundation bred, were a good nick. Because Zippo Pat Bars was born in 1964 and the very next year this stallion was born...

The ever-flashy...Sonny Dee Bar.

Sonny Dee Bar is a product of the magic Three Bars/Leo cross on the topside(He is a great-grandson to both of them) and out of a heavily Midnight Jr.-bred mare(He is a great-grandson, twice, of Midnight Jr.). It just doesn't get any better than that in my book.

So what does all of this have to do with my little speed demon???

Well, it opens a lot of doors. Since I don't do barrel racing futurities, Shooter and I have a few years to fill in before he goes on to see if he will be or wants to be a barrel horse. Maybe I can garner a few Western Pleasure points on him before we crack open on the cans.

I love old cowboy sayings and this one seems appropriate for today...

"It is easier to ride a fast horse slow than it is to try to make a slow horse fast!!"

Shooter's Daddy

Here is Shooter's daddy...

They were identical when Shooter was born...

Same color, same face marking. Shooter was just a little mini-me of his daddy.

Still a mini-me in build though...

That neck-tie in at the shoulder is not very good on the stud and he sure enough put the same tie-in on this colt. Asking for outside opinions on this...how much would that affect you if you were looking at buying this colt? Is this something that would totally put you off or would you look more at what you wanted to do with him as a performance horse in the future?

I know you can't really see his legs in this photo, but he is super correct. He travels with a level headset and is athletic enough to pick up a lope from a standstill. One second he is standing there and the next he is loping off. In person, you have to study his neck a bit to realize that it is the tie-in that sort of disturbs his eye-appeal.

Honest opinions are welcomed!! You will not hurt my feelings in any way, because Shooter isn't for sale, but if this tie-in ends up being a consistent trait by the stud, we will have to seriously evaluate how and when we can market his colts. Having to wait until they are 3-4y/o will seriously reduce the number of mares we breed to him each year. The max number we breed is 3 anyway, but not being able to market them effectively for another 5 years would mean that we would have 12 more head on the ground before we could hope to see any sort of a return. That doesn't work if you can't move any of them at a younger age.

If bloodlines are important to you...of course they are if you are looking at a performance horse-LOL-here is Pistol's pedigree...Fast Pistol 045. He is 37% Oklahoma Star bred(13 crosses in there). The pedigree specialist who bred him designed his pedigree to cross on King and Leo bred mares. Run and Cow!!

Shooter

Remember my blood bay baby?

He is changing colors!

Chocolate brown??

What the heck? I know babies change color, but this guy has really changed. I will still register him as bay because his legs are black, but I wonder if he will shed out to that blood-bay color again next spring?

This silly colt sure has a nice disposition. He is very friendly and will come from across the pasture to hang out with a person. I love that. Some of it is from imprinting, but some of it has to be from his daddy. None of Woofer's other foals were this friendly-imprinted or not-LOL. His kicking antics weren't a bad thing. They impressed on Megan that you can't just "love" on the babies. She is careful to treat him like a small horse and impresses on him that he must face up if he wants attention and he must respect a person's space. Even my mom likes to be around him and I have to tell you-for as many horses as my mom has raised, she don't like babies much. She never really figured out how to handle them, so she just didn't.

How do you like this boo-boo?

I had the 2 horses I took to Colorado in the round pen for a couple of days and when I went out to load them up to take them back out to mom's, Roan Dog had part of his nostril hanging off. Great!! I don't think this is going to heal back together. I will have to wait until it heals up and the flies go away and then I bet I am going to have to take him to the vet to have this chunk removed. Can't leave it there, he will continually catch it on something and eventually tear it off. That would be horrible. I have absolutely no idea how on earth he did it. There is not a single thing in that round pen that he could have gotten hooked on. The only thing I can think of is that either he or Turk struck at a fly and whacked him in the nose. This is the same nostril he had an old scar on that we never knew how he got. Darn horses...put em in a padded cell and they will still find a way to hurt themselves.

Home

I picked this fun quiz up over at The Horseshoeinghousewife's blog. And...well D.U.H!!! What else would you expect me to be? Well, other than a pair of stiletto's-LOL.

You Are Cowboy Boots

This doesn't mean you're country, just funky. You've got a ton of attitude and confidence. You're unique, expressive, and even a little bit wacky. You wear whatever you feel like – and you have your own sense of style. You are straight shooting and honest. You tell people how it is. Low maintenance and free wheeling, you're always up for an adventure. You should live: Where you can at least get to wide open spaces You should work: In a job that allows you to take change

What Kind of Shoe Are You?

It's All 1/2 Finished...

Where the heck did my 2 weeks go? I'm confused! Didn't I just get here? Now, I will have to head back home on Thursday. I'm not ready! We haven't finished 1/2 of what we wanted to accomplish. That means I will have to go home and leave Chris with a bunch of 1/2 finished projects. Poor guy-nothing like getting left to finish things on his own.

The supervisors have worked hard these two weeks though...

One project that did get finished. This corner needed to be cleaned and painted before the new gun safe could be put in place...

At least this got done. I wasn't going to let Chris put the gun safe in it's spot until I got the wall painted behind it. That thing was going to get moved once and once only!!

I think I forgot to mention that Chris hired some local kids to tear down the tin barn that was here...

It was in a horrible spot. I can't imagine why someone would put a barn 20 feet from the house? Anyway, neither of us wanted it there. It cut the property up and made it difficult to utilize the space we have available. The kids just have to come load this part on a trailer and haul it away. Their mom asked if they could have it-they have horses too. I told Chris to give it to them-I didn't want to reassemble it where we are going to put the new shelter.

I did get some of the house painted...

We both love the color!!

The boys are going to finish painting the house for me. I think they will do a good job. Hard work doesn't seem to be much of a problem for these two.

Now that the barn and crappy corral that was here are gone, this corner is where Chris' shop will go... This corner is where the new shelter and corrals will go...
Time and Money!! That is all it takes to get things the way you want them. Sometimes time becomes more important than money! Luckily, I am not worried about space to put in an arena at this time. We have one of those on either corner of the street we live on and both owners have said Megan and I are more than welcome to ride in them. People are so nice around here!

My Honey and I even got to get dressed up for the NRA Banquet last Friday...

We clean up pretty good huh? LOL!

The Horse Eating Blue Tarp

From the first day that I took the geldings out of the barn, they have have spooked at the stack of hay beside the door. Turk, the paint horse got over it within a couple of days. The roan horse still sees monsters...leaving the barn, going back into the barn, entering the round corral and leaving the round corral. The last few days we have had some rain showers so the owner of the barn put the tarp back on the hay. Turk took a good, long look at it and then was fine. The roan horse...(insert eye roll)!!! So today I took some strips of old tarp with me to the barn. I am sick of getting run into and over by the roan horse. We were going to fix this problem!

I have never done a lot of sacking out with strange stuff, because my horses get hauled enough that they get used to a lot of strange stimulus.

These horses? They haven't been off of the ranch in 6 years. That's a long time to live in a safe and comfortable world. Turk is taking it all in and adjusting well. I like him more and more every day.
Knowing he would handle this without a lot of freaking out, I put him in the round corral first. Poor guy, he is my guinea pig. And my stabilizer!!

At first he thought the tarp stips were gonna eat him...

Pretty soon he started walking around them...

He was pretty sure they were gonna reach up and bite him...

But...he got over it...

It didn't take long and I would send him around the round corral and he wasn't spooking at them at all. I spend some time picking a strip up and approaching him. He backed up a lot, but never got excited enough to leave. Once I could rub him on both sides of his neck with it, I quit.

Time for the roan horse...sorry, no pictures of that. I left Turk in the round pen and brought Roan Dog in. He didn't want to come in. But, I gave him plenty of time to look things over and pretty soon he came in to join his friend. All I did was turn him loose to evaluate the situation. He stared at those tarp strips like he was pretty sure they were going to jump up and eat him. Turk looked at him like he was an idiot. By the time I was done cleaning stalls they were standing next to the tarp and neither of them seemed bothered by it.

It was getting dark on me, so I quickly saddled Turk and took him to the arena. I am going to have to say, I think the chiro helped him...a little. We now have a right lead!! And...he can maintain it!! Yay!!! There are still problems with the left lead, but I think the next step will be to get his teeth worked on. Now that he seems to be traveling better, I can feel that he is bracing himself to the left and really dropping that shoulder. I would bet he has some sharp edges on that side.

In the meantime, the roan horse was experimenting with the tarp. He bucked and played in the round pen and I could hear his feet hitting the tarp. By the time I got done with Turk and headed back toward the pickup to unsaddle, the roan horse was standing there one of the strips of tarp hanging out of his mouth. Yea...I think it is safe to say, he killed the horse eating blue tarp. And when it came time to put them away? He led right into the barn without a sideways glance at the tarp covered bales. Progress is progress. Now if I just had another 2 or 3 months of being able to keep this horse in a stall and working with him multiple times a day.

My mom may have thought it was a waste of money to bring these horses all the way out here for two weeks, but this one on one time with them is proving very valuable.

A Tuff Nut to Crack

The roan horse has issues. Lots and lots of issues!!

But I believe that underneath it all, he has a good heart. That belief is his only saving grace at this moment. No one else will touch him. He is a horse to be feared and avoided by all in my family and by any "trainer" we have talked to about working with him.

So I have ignored my brother's warnings and my mother's worry and have taken on the task of taking the big red brute and trying to turn him back into a productive member of the equine society. Why? Because I look at this eye...
And I see worry...and a touch of fear. I do not see a mean horse. I do not see a horse that cannot be changed. Do I think he will be easy? Not in the slightest. He very well may be the toughest challenge I have ever undertaken.

This guy is the perfect example of a horse I would walk the "loose pens" looking for. He is not the type of horse I probably would have picked though. I always looked for horses that seemed to want to come to a person. He would have been a horse that hung at the back of the pen and avoided any contact with people. Not usually a horse that can be transformed into a gentle family-type saddle horse.

The sad part is...this is a horse we raised. How did he get this way? We are not abusive towards our horses. We do not let people ride our horses that might be abusive. Nothing happened to this horse that was extreme or should have caused him to become an outlaw. He may have been "cowboyed" a bit, but still nothing that would or should have caused him to become the serious bucker they claim he is.

Not even his breeding would indicate he should be this way. Megan's blue roan, Rip is his 3/4 brother...A gentler, kinder horse you will not find than this blue roan horse. They are both by the same sire out of mares that are 1/2 sisters(same sire) and bred the same way on their dam's side.

So what possibly could be the reason for this particular horse to so strongly object to being ridden? I believe the answer lies in his base personality. Surprisingly, this very large, powerful horse is timid. He is probably one of the most timid horses I have every ran across. My mother remembers him as always being standoffish and rather spooky about things, when he was a colt. Other horses pick on him. Definitely not top dog in the pecking order.

Strangely enough, his first instinct with people induced stimulus is fight...not flight! That makes for a dangerous combination. He spooks and then attacks it. He has never once shown aggression toward me, only the object I am approaching him with. I would hate to be in the wrong spot at the wrong time though.

He didn't get started until he was four. And then, there was a bit of a problem with some of the skin on his back being attached to the muscle. A very strange and unusual phenomena. That was surgically separated, allowed to heal and then he went to a good friend of ours in the Sandhills of Nebraska. He got along with him fine. He did say to take care with him. He would like to buck, but had never tried very hard with him. Miles and miles of checking cattle in the often deep sand in that country takes a lot of the starch out of horses that think they might like to be rank. I do not think this guy did anything bad to this horse. As far as the scars on his back from his skin problem, he don't seem to indicate any soreness or tenderness when they are palpated or pressure is applied. Also, the "chiro" guy didn't seem to find any spots that would indicate pain as the issue. He said he "fixed" a couple vertebrae in his neck, but I never noticed the horse indicating discomfort in his neck or problems with flexion, up/down or laterally.

Anyway, the real drama started when my brother got this gelding home, let him set for awhile and then made the mistake of treating him like one of his finished horses. My brother rides well, ropes well and is a very good cowboy. He just doesn't have a lot of ability to "read" horses and didn't pay attention to the fact that this horse was pretty nervous. The roan horse promptly made my brother pay for his lack of attention to detail. He bucked him off right in the yard. Brother dear, got right back on and got him under control. He went to the pasture to check cows and the roan horse bucked him off at the farthest end of the pasture. He got back on and made it home.

Now my dear brother is a good cowboy, but he is the first to admit, he don't like horses that buck. So the roan horse went to a feedlot for some more riding time. He promptly bucked that guy off. He was unsaddled and turned out until my brother could come get him. The guy said he could not take a chance that the horse would buck him off in one of the cement alleyways at the feedlot. Can't say that I blame him.

So the roan horse came home and my brother and a friend of his, set about taking turns riding him. He did okay for awhile. As long as they rode together. Until, the fateful day when they were checking cattle and the wind was blowing 60mph. As they were coming across a prairie dog town, my brother stepped off his horse to kill a rattlesnake. His horse got away. The other kid was riding Roan Dog and set about catching my brother's horse. They got squared away and headed for the house. Roan Dog suddenly become very interested and worried about those prairie dog holes(he is very smart!). When the wind whipped the reins into his front legs, he cut loose. I guess it was a pretty wild ride for that kid. Roan Dog was half bucking, half spooking, across an area that was riddled with prairie dog holes. Finally the roan horse just cut loose and went to full bore bucking and bucked the kid off...then stopped and stared. The kid opted to just walk home leading the horse. When they got home and unsaddled, the roan horse was turned out to pasture and that is where he has spent the last 4 years.

So now, I get to put what little knowledge I have accumulated to use to see if there is a chance he can be fixed. It is going to be slow going, but I think in the long run it will be worth it. He may only end up being safe for me. That happens sometimes. Some horses attach strongly to the one person who figures them out. I can see him being one of those. He's pretty attached to me already. Nevertheless, it is going to be interesting to see what can be done and hopefully to watch him bloom into a confident, secure athlete.