My challenging RBI

 November 8 2009

Twosox always gives me a challenge of some sort!! And today it was a a good one!! I think that it was more me then anything.... wait, I KNOW it was more me. I wasn't in the best frame of mind to play with him and the weather didn't help any. But I went out anyways and played. At some points I think I should have just stopped and went inside but there were still some really good parts of our play time.

The horses were down near the turn around so we played there for a little bit. The ground was frozen and bumpy so that didn't help any. Poor Twosox. Since the ground was hard when ever he walked you could see that he wasn't comfortable. I think part of it had to do with the fact that Twosox's feet aren't very healthy. But he still tried really hard.

When we got back to the corral we went out to the front yard and did some circles. Twosox was not paying attention to me AT ALL. The wind had picked up so that didn't help. So I decided to just let him walk around on the circle [because I know he wouldn't maintain the trot] until he connected with me. Or at least try that and see how it worked. Fortunately there is a slight hill on our front yard and so as Twosox was going around he had to go up and down the hill. Twosox was bracing, was looking away etc etc but after about the third circle or so Twosox started watching where he was going, he started arching his body around the circle, he got connected and then what REALLY surprised me was that he started blowing, stretching, licking and chewing etc!!! It was SO cool!!! His gait softened and he put slack in the rope. Plus he picked up the trot and gave me a nice slow, soft trot!!! And he didn't break gait!!! It was so amazing!!! I couldn't believe the change!! There were times when we lost the connection but for the most part Twosox was connected and had slack in the rope.

I brought him in and then after a rest and lick and chew I sent him out the other way. Twosox did the same thing on this side, he was bracing, looking away etc but after a couple circles he did the same thing he did on the other side and started to relax. Again he picked up the trot and trotted 4 laps with out breaking gait and kept the slack in the rope the whole time!!! I couldn't believe this was the same horse!! Twosox has never trotted 4 laps on the circle that calm!! It was wonderful!!

After that we went and played around the trailer. Twosox was fine walking up the ramp and putting his nose, neck and front to feet in the trailer. It was amazing how confident he is now!! So we played with getting him really confident with him whole body in the trailer. He will now stay in longer when I send him in. So that is good progress. After a bit I went in the trailer and asked Twosox to come in that way. I opened the little side door so he could see out and we just hung out in there for a bit. Twosox was a little worried at first because he was windy but after a while he calmed down and even ate a little bit of hay.... a very little bit. Then I asked him to back out, he calmly backed out and then I let him eat grass before we went back to the corral.

It was a great play time but I could have handled myself a lot better. Like Mr. Parelli said over and over in the New levels.... "Before you can have control over your horse, you have to have control of yourself" That is very true!!

~K