November 21st Playtime

November 21 2009

My sister and I went out this afternoon and played with Prince and Ruffy. It was reminded me of the days when it was just us four!!! It was fun!! Not that it isn't fun now though ;)

It was a gloomy day but we went out anyways. I love watching my sister and Ruffy play!!! I am positive that Ruffy would almost do anything for my sister!!!

Prince and I had a pretty good play time. It had it's “Oh boy” moments that is for sure. My plan was to play with Prince's feet. I didn't go to that first though. We did some circles, sideways, and leading by the tail. We played around with Don't change gait on the circle. Prince would canter about 2 ½ laps then break gait. I know how I could have done better now but I guess I will be prepared for next time!!

After we had played for a bit I then asked Prince to pick up his feet. Prince kept pulling back and did not want me to hold his feet. It felt like we were back to square one again. I took the end of my rope and wrapped it around Prince's leg that way I could go with him when he was pulling and not release on a brace. Today that didn't work as well as it did before. Prince just pulled harder and got worse. So I changed stratigies and so if Prince pulled his foot back and I couldn't hold it I just rubbed it and calmly picked back up again. I also noticed that if there was any tension in my arm when Prince pulled, he pulled harder. Hmmmm.... How interesting!! So I really hard to make sure that when Prince started pulling his foot I just calmly went with it and didn't act like a predator and get harder. That made a HUGE difference!!! At first Prince wouldn't even let me pick out his foot!!! But pretty soon he figured out that I wasn't going to get frustrated and I would just rub his leg and then pick his foot back up again. No big deal. So if Prince was trying to push my buttons and get my frustrated that wouldn't work or if it is a trust issue rubbing his foot then picking it back up again will help that. So either way it would help.

I was able to pick up all four of his feet and get a good idea of what I need to trim when I do trim him. So that was really good. His left hind foot was the hardest. So I will have to do a lot of friendly on that foot. All in all though Prince did really well. It will be interesting to see how he does the next time I pick up his feet. I really want to trim Prince's feet. Hopefully on Wednesday I can trim him.

Looking back I know I could have handled our play session a lot better but I know for next time and so I guess that it good.

I can't believe that it is almost December!! I hope I can get at least two more horses trimmed before the snow get here. I am praying!!! :)

~K