For All That Tomorrow Brings: Confidence Games: Day 1. Green lawn chair

So today was Day 1 of playing Confidence Games with Twosox. Over the next couple months I am going to be focusing on building and strengthening Twosox's [my dear sweet RBI horse] confidence. I am going to pick an object and play all seven games with it then after we have played all of them I am going to pick a new object... and not just any old toy but I am going to try some really scary ones too. Things that Twosox wouldn't see every day!! This way I can still play with Twosox and create a stronger relationship but at the same time not over loading him. Plus I can focus on Prince's and my journey even more with out neglecting my other horse :) I think it will give them and me the best of both worlds!! Another bonus is that on those cold winter days [which I know we will have ;)] I can still go out and play because it wouldn't take long to do!!

So today was Day 1. I picked a green lawn chair to start with, nothing to hard but still it will present some challenges. Of course game #1 of the seven games is the friendly game. So we started off with some Touch it, nice and simple. Twosox had no trouble going over and sniffing the chair.

He even offered to put his front foot on it!! Not a bad start!! After Twosox was done checking it out I asked him to put different zones hear the chair. Then I stood on the chair and did some extreme friendly game with my carrot stick. Then I played friendly game in every zone. Twosox did really well with that. Zone 5 was a little bit harder but all in all Twosox did really well. I was proud of him!!

Then I picked up the chair and walked around Twosox seeing how he was with the chair moving in each zone. He was great!! He got a little bit worried about me and the chair in Zone 1 but other then that he was fine. The whole time I was watching his head, ears, and eyes making sure that he hadn't gone internal. After that I started rubbing Twosox with the chair. Twosox wasn't confident with that at first. But with some approach and retreat he let me put the chair on his back and hold it there. Twosox was okay with it but he wasn't 100% confident so I gently asked him to bend his head around towards me. I did that every time he got a little worried and pretty soon every time he got a little worried around the chair on his back he would turn his head towards me and check in. I was amazed at how fast he learned that!!!

After that Twosox and I just hung out together for a bit. After a couple minutes Twosox finally started licking and chewing.... and boy was it a big lick and chew!! He wouldn't stop yawning too!!

Since he was so relaxed I decided to climb on and ride for a bit. Twosox lined up right next to the fence so that I could get on. Once I was on we checked our lateral flexions and indirect rein. Twosox wanted to go to the other horses so we had a chance to practice our lateral flexions. We walked back over to around the tree and stopped there and rested. Then we played around with how light I had to be when I was asking Twosox for a lateral flexion so that he would keep his feet still. Every time I ride Twosox I am amazed at how light he is! I mean I was hardly touching the reins and he had already bent!! Pretty soon Twosox was bending no problem and he was keeping his feet still. It was fun!! Our 9 step backs were really light too. If I wasn't light enough Twosox would do what I wanted but he would brace so when I was light enough he would do it calmly with no brace. It was really interesting!!

Then we stood still for a while. I wanted to wait till Twosox relaxed before I got off. He is always tense when I am riding ring. It doesn't really look like it when I watch our rides on video but when I am up there you can tell that he is tense the whole time it especially shows when you see him come off all the adrenaline he was on!!! Then you know he was tense!! After about 5 minutes he started licking and chewing, yawning, shaking his head and relaxing. That was when I got off. Once I was off he kept yawning, and licking and chewing. I love seeing him coming off adrenaline!!!

I knelt down and asked Twosox to lower his head so I could take his halter off. He kept it low the whole time and then stayed with me for a while before he left. The whole time was still licking and chewing. It was amazing!!

So I had a REALLY fun time with Twosox it was so much fun!! I can hardly wait for our next play time!!

Here are some more pictures....