Independance Day

Sunday was the annual 4th of July celebration at Veteran's Park in Sierra Vista. B Troop is an integral part of the ceremony as we are charged with delivering a proclamation to the city mayor as part of the event. We also set up an "encampment" and put on a few demonstrations with the horses and cannon. I was planning on riding Apache but as he is still having problems with a runny nose, I chose to ride Duke instead. I figured I'd have problems with Duke as he was fairly traumatized by the riding demonstration the previous week and it turns out I was right. He was as nervous as an illegal alien mopping floors at a Border Patrol agent convention. I decided not to ride him in the ceremony as the area was tiny and I feared he would trample someone during the 50-gun salute and Air Force fly over. I did use him, however, during the little riding demo we did later. He was reasonably calmed down by then and we had enough room that I wasn't worried about him stepping on someone. He was very agitated at first until he realized I wasn't going to fire a pistol or do anything scary. He settled down after a while and he managed to take the first step forward in his training since the demo disaster. It will take me a while to ease him back to where he was before but I'm sure he can do it.