Going slow.....

Yesterday [December 27 2009] morning when I was outside I went to see the horses and spent some time with Twosox. I didn't do a whole lot. Just rubbed him and then massaged his legs. While I was massaging his legs I could slowly see him start to relax and by the end he was totally relaxed and spent about 5 minutes yawning, licking and chewing and then fell asleep. It is amazing how Twosox can look okay but you don't know how unconfident he really is till you see him coming off the adrenaline. 

After lunch I went back out and I played with Twosox. It was actually warm outside.... or at least not cold ;) After I had haltered Twosox we went up to the riding ring to play. I had a couple things that I wanted to play with but nothing to big..... well they are big for us because Twosox isn't confident at them but not in general :)

We started out with some friendly then did some circles at the walk. I had the 22ft line on but when Twosox is circling at the end of it he looses confidence and in so we loose all connection. So we started out on about 15ft. Twosox did a lot better. He still was a little bit unconfident but not to bad. Once we had done a couple circle at the walk I asked Twosox to trot every time he got to the barrel. I didn't care how long he trotted as long as he tried. So we did that for a while. I was really really soft and by the time we stopped Twosox, though he wouldn't trot long, was trotting at a phase 1/2. A couple times he came in with out me asking so I gave him a rub and really softly asked him to go back out. The whole time I was playing around with how light and soft I had to be so that Twosox would respond confidently. It was incredible!!! I mean I was hardly doing anything and still Twosox couldn't back up with out looking away or having a high head!!! I think by the end of our session I had found out just how light I had to be.... or at least some thing that would work ;)

After we finished circles we went to Figure eights. Those were interesting. We just did them at the walk. I put the barrels farther a part [My sisters idea! Thanks sis!!] I think it really helped. After a couple minutes of experimenting and such Twosox offered to trot.... a very little bit. I took it but continued on. I could see that Twosox was getting more confident and he wasn't bracing as much. Twosox started trotting through the middle of the Figrue eight and then he started trotting part way around the barrels [something I have only ever been able to get when he was RBE and I was doing the Figure eight pattern until he relaxed]. So I brought him in and gave him a LONG rest. I still wanted to play around with getting his confidence when he was coming around the barrel towards me. He was having a hard time giving me two eyes. So after our rest I asked him to go back out on the figure eight. It took a while but soon Twosox could almost 100% of the time confidently [and giving me two eyes] come around the barrel and go the other way. So that was where we ended. I brought him in and wait for Twosox to lick and chew. It seemed like eternity before he finally licked and chewed but it was worth the wait!!

After that we did some Touch it. I was standing about 15ft away from a barrel so I asked Twosox to go over to it and touch it. He did really well. Once he got over there he sniffed the barrel then turned and looked at me and asked a question!! It was really neat!! We went to different things. What started out as just Touch it from 22ft way turned into Touch it from zone 5. It was really cool!! Twosox did so well!! Each time he touch what I wanted he would ask me a question and check in to make sure he did the right thing. He is such a sweet horse!!!!

Then we just spent some time hanging out together. When I let Twosox go he stayed right with me and then followed me all the way across the riding ring, down the hill and into the corral. It was a great ending to a great play time!!


~K