Lead Ropes and Lunge Lines

Monday after our ride I gave Peebs a quick rinse and washed his socks.  The wash rack at our barn is at the end of the upper barn aisle and directly across from it one of the large wooden tack trunks our BO had built for us.  I usually set my lead rope down on it when I bathe but when  I was done my lead rope was gone.  I looked around and walked up and down the aisle in case I missed it.  No rope. I know a couple people walked past us while I was bathing and I'm assuming one of them picked it up, but I couldn't find where they put it.

Missing: one blue and grey lead rope

 

We all know things tend to grow legs and walk away in barns, and it's not like I don't have extra lead ropes, but it's still weird.  I put up a note on the white board in the aisle but haven't gotten my rope back yet. The extras I have are an old pink and white one of McKenna's and Phoenix's blue and black one.  I couldn't bring myself to use Phoenix's, just like I can't bring myself to take his halter off my hangers in front of my stall. The pink/white combo clashed pretty badly with poor Peebs, so we've been practicing our "off the line" skills.  He's very willing and so far I can walk him back and forth from his stall to the arena and the cross ties with out a lead rope. We also did a little ground tieing/free tieing in the aisle where the cross ties are, but I didn't clip him in. He's surprisingly willing to stand there. The feed store is having a sale this weekend and a new lead rope, along with grain and cat food, is on the list.

We don't need no crossties

We also had an unplanned free lung yesterday.  I had put the neck stretcher on and was going to put the lunge line on when Peebs took off on me.  Since he wanted to play run away I went to stand like I was lunging him and worked him off the line.  Going to the right he was great; went mostly in a circle around me, cantered and trotted when I asked and stopped off my voice.  Going left wasn't as good which is normal even with a lunge line.  He made some lovely egg shapes and kept trying to turn around and go to the right but we were able to trot a halfway decent circle at the end. I think we'll be doing more of this.

Dramatic pony is dramatic