Keep on Keeping on

What a day! I literally just walked in the door and it is 10:30 pm. Today was kind of a review day for Spade. I passed his review with flying colors. I rubbed him all over with my stick, disengaged his hind end and forehand, lunged both way, and went further with picking up his front feet. He was great on all of it. He even lunged with out pulling on me. I would say that he is about 80% perfect on all the ground work that I have taught him so far. Today I taught him two extra things I taught him to flex his nose to the left and right in the halter. He got the idea so I left that alone until tomorrow. I also did a drill that I do to teach them to move off of pressure at the hip. It is where I drape the lead rope all the way down the body on the opposite side and around the hind end I tighten the extra lead to pull the head away from me toward the opposite hip and then the horse will spin and face me again. The first time I did this. His response was a bit more then I expected. I tugged a little bit and he kicked out from the fear of the rope behind his hocks. I thought we had fixed this problem. I am so glad I haven't attempted to do anything with his hind end yet. I also got to see how powerful and quick this guy can kick. He is much quicker at kicking then any domestic horse that I have ever seen. I went right back and set him up again and this time he actually thought about what I wanted and listened to my direction. He did it. After two or three times he fully understood. Then I went to the other side where again the first time he kicked out and took the lead right out of my hand. But all he does is run a foot or two and then turn to me and walk back. He is responding right in every way. I feel like all the pain of the last week is paying off. He is still really fearful of anything that he hasn't been introduced to. So tomorrow I am going to start asking him to do things that really challenge his flight response. I am praying that his basic foundation will hold.
Today God gave me this scripture.... Luke 19:17 basically says that if you are faithful in the little then, He will make you ruler over much. I have always loved this scripture. It is one that I try to live my life by. I have found that if you are consistent in any thing then you will get better. And with that you will step up in your field. If i didn't faithfully go out and do the same things with Spade everyday then I wouldn't be where I am with him. On the other hand if you are wanting people to trust you with bigger things, or a promotion of some kind in you life. Faithfulness is the key. Do things that are not required of you and be consistent in it and when authorities in your life are looking for someone to give a bigger job. Then you are going to be on the top of the list. When you are consistently faithful and working toward excellence then the sky is the limit.