Taking it up a notch....

November 9 2009

Twosox and I took it up another notch yesterday when we played today. I went out with a couple newish [things we either haven't in a long time or have only done once or twice ;)] things to play with. It was definitely an interesting playtime.

We started off in the corral with some Friendly game then we did Stick to me up the hill, Twosox was really in tune with me!! Once we were up in the riding ring we did some circles. I was planning on just doing some walk/trot transitions, maintain gait and some Change of directions. We did those but part way through I asked myself  "Why aren't we advancing?" Really rather random..... then I realised that I think it is because I don't want to send Twosox RB. I can't want him to get unconfident, I want him to stay calm, cool and collected..... but we aren't going to advance like that. We need to go outside our comfort zone, into the unknown.

So we took the step out. I asked Twosox to canter on the circle. Before when I asked him to canter he got worried and kind of froze up while on the circle. He couldn't canter and all he could do was trot really fast. So I was prepared..... almost. The first time I asked for it Twosox took off running. Now it almost looked like a little bit of dominance but I am not sure. I held on and Twosox continued on the circle. I rewarded the slightest try and finally when I asked for the canter Twosox would canter for about 1/4 lap. It was a start. After that was successful I brought Twosox in for a rest. He was unconfident but after a couple minutes he relaxed. One thing that was interesting also was that Twosox immediately licked and chewed!! Then I sent him back out the other way. This time it went a little bit better. Twosox seemed to understand a little but more about what I wanted. He tried so hard!!!

After that Twosox and I did some Stick to me and Touch it. Normally when ever I ask Twosox to trot a long beside me and gets a little worried and trots with me but not right beside me. This time he stayed right with me the whole time!! Then we did some Touch it. I asked Prince to put all four feet on the pedestal. He did it and he didn't even hesitate!!

Then just for fun we did some cutting moves! Twosox is REALLY good at those!!! Then after that we just spend some time hanging out together. Twosox lowered his head and really relaxed. Then I took the halter off and we played at Liberty!!! Twosox did so well!! Our draw has gotten a million times better!!! We did Stick to me, Touch it, and Leading by the tail. What made it even more cool was that it was really windy!! Twosox being a RBI really gets worried when it is windy. So it was a huge improvement that we could play at Liberty in the wind!!

I am REALLY looking forward to playing with Twosox again!!!!

~K