Today I am grateful that when I went out to take this video, the first two horses at the gate most eager to greet meet, were Cesar and Natalia, the two that got worked yesterday.

I am grateful for my early morning pre-dawn ritual of stillness and reflection. It helps me to have an even deeper gratitude. I am grateful for the training we accomplished with Cesar yesterday. We lunged him at a walk and trot on the lunge line, using the Tabata Timer to keep us honest. Once he was warmed up, we continued the lesson but with a rider. It was great to see him, for the first time, learning how to shift his weight underneath him to accomplish the task of holding himself in frame while going in a circle on the lunge, while also balancing the weight of a rider. Although he has been ridden many times in his life, so far, it’s all been losey goosey wandering down the trail. Thus began his first lessons in how to be a ‘real’ riding horse. And I am quite pleased to say he seemed to enjoy it.

Next, it was Natalia’s turn. She watched us the whole time we worked with Cesar so she had an idea what this was all about. We did work with Chilli a little bit, but she is young and gets overly excited easily. So her training session was shorter. Natalia, though is ready for more advanced lessons, so we saddled her up, and put her on a lunge line for the first time, using the Tabata Timer for momentum. She varied from moving off around the pen with purpose, to trying to stop and stand and look at us, like, why are we doing this? It took a lot of encouragement to keep her moving, which I didn’t like but seem to not be getting too stressed out. She did rear up a few times (it seems she likes to do this), but then we petted and reassured her often, and she did quite well. After a few rounds both ways on the lunge, I brought her into the barn, tightened the saddle, and climbed on board. She could have cared less about any of that, she was doing very well. She is a busy little girl, but she enjoys all the handling (and treats) and we ended on a great note and I feel good about the progression of her training. I am grateful for that.

I am so grateful my sunrise morning YouTube short from 2 days ago got over 17,000 views! I have no idea what I did differently to cause that spike, but I am very grateful nonetheless!

Finally, I am grateful I get to go to work today. How lonely would I be if I just had to stay home day after day? I get to laugh and joke with my colleagues, I get to connect with clients, I get to try and earn puppy kisses from my patients, and we get the opportunity to outdo ourselves as a team and feel a sense of accomplishment. What are you looking forward to today? Have you gotten all of your 2026 goals figured out yet? How will your life look in March? In July? Next December? Giving some thought now will go a long way to ensure it’s even better than you can now imagine. So get out there and create the best day of your life, you Animal Loving Angels! And yes, yes, I have yet to tell you about my BIG REAVEAL, you horse lovers are going to especially want to tune in for that. Hopefully I can get confirmation it is a GO to tell you about it, sometimes this week. In the meantime, if it’s in your ability all, we could use all the help we can get. Send us an email at info@resqranch.org, or donate here

https://www.coloradogives.org/organization/Resqranch Have a wonderful day my friends, we got this!

See all of our good morning videos at www.YouTube.com/@the1DrQ