hn27.

i made my first girevous error in horse training that may cost me about a week of trying to fix it. so a couple days ago I went to a talabateria, or leather shop (where the guy who owns it actually makes all the leather stuff), and bought a saddle and other horse accessories. everything came out to about 7000 lempiras, which brings my horse value up to 15000, or 750 dollars. thank you horse for making me broke. anyway, i hauled all this stuff home and yesterday decided that it was time to begin saddle training. i went into the little grassy area where i keep Ruso, and i slowly placed the mantillon (or little rug that goes under the saddle) on his back. nothing. he didn't move, nor kick, nor throw it off. so i, in my stupidity, decided that we could just walk around with it for a while and he would be just fine. we left the pasture, and started walking down a dirt road towards the soccer field where i do the training. about half way there, the mantillon slipped off of his back, and that is where all of the fun started. as the mantillon hit the ground, the horse reared, and i, feeling the pull of the rope, turned around to find my horse towering above me with its two front feet high in the air. luckily, i survived the incident, but the horse is now scarred for some time. it is impossible to approach him with the thing, as he has now aquired a deep seeded fear of the yellow foam and leather patch of rug. at any approach, he kicks, jumps, and does everything possible to avoid contact. we spent about an hour with me sitting by it, and pulling him to it to smell it, but once 15 seconds passed, he would lose it again. i even tried sitting on it and having him come closer, but as he noticed the yellow foam bellow my ass, he would kick again. i ended up using the time to train him in other things, and i think he now understands the stay command. at least a little. i also taught him to go backwards when i touch his chest, which i will use later to reinforce other moves. all in all training is going well except for this rug setback. i did try something else though, which seemed to work temporarily. i closed his eyes and had someone place the rug on his back, and with that he seemed fine, but as soon as it was taken off, he went nuts. I decided I would leave the rug in his little pasture with him, so maybe just by looking at it all day he'll get used to it. hopefully. if not, i may draw on it in permanent marker and see if the change in color scheme will throw him off. i'll keep you guys updated.

in other news, i found local young adults (18-20 so they're technically teens to young adualts, whatever) to run my worm project with me, and then, without me. basically, i will train them to manage and monitor the project, and then in a few months, leave it completely in their hands. whats awesome is that they seem genuinely excited about the concept, and since they're gonna get paid at one point, no one seems to worry. plus, since they're used to getting paid 6 months after doing the work (which is how honduras pays their state employees), they don't seem to mind that they will be working for free for the first two months.