What a play session! Prince and I had a wonderful but very interesting play time this afternoon. I don't even know where to start!! On our way up the hill I drove Prince from zone 5 on the 12ft line. He was really in tune with me and responded really well when I asked him to move over etc... considering I had an arm full of stuff I was taking up.
Once up there I switched to the 22ft line... the one we have to tie on [now pay attention this will be very important later... ]. Then we went over to the planted tire. I noticed that Prince was a little.... "unsettled"... if that is the right word so I played with the horses that showed up and instead of going onto what I had planned we just hung out together for a bit. Then I asked Prince to back between the tire and fence and over the pole that was half way up [one end on the fence rail and the other end on the ground :)] Prince had a little bit of trouble at first backing over the pole but then he got it and backed right over it. Prince was about 21ft away from me by this time. After that I stood on the tire that was standing up. Prince go worried. By this time I was really wondering what was up. I had stood above Prince before and he had absolutely no issue with it. So I just did a lot of friendly game until he relaxed a little then I asked Prince to go over to the pedestal... well that was what I asked for but Prince offered sideways so I took it, he went sideways over to the pedestal then I asked Prince to put his back feet on the pedestal. He did really well. At first he was trying really hard but just wasn't sure exactly what I wanted. I rewarded the slightest try and he put one foot on it then got a little stuck so I brought him in and gave him a rub then sent him back out to try again. This time he knew exactly what to do and he put both of his back feet on the pedestal. And from 22ft away while I was standing on the tire... not bad ;)
After that we went to circles. I stood on the pedestal and sent Prince out. He offered a really nice close circle, with slack in the line.. and I mean the belly on the rope was on the ground. It was really cool!! I asked for a couple change of directions here and there then let more rope out so Prince could go farther out. I noticed that Prince could circle easier going one way then the other. So I took a mental note of that. Another thing I noticed that was almost every time I asked Prince to a change of direction as soon as he would feel the pressure he would go faster... and not just on the change of directions just when he was circling and I asked him to circle closer to me he would speed up almost like he went RB. Also Prince couldn't look at me when I was backing him up.... so anyways after I got one nice change of direction I brought Prince in. Then while he was resting I remembered that for the last couple play times I have used the 22ft line with the clip on it and I remembered what Mr. Parelli said about coil tension and how it makes horses really uncomfortable and we don't even know it!! So since my mom was done with the 22ft with the clip on it I switched ropes... and you will never believe this!! As soon as I put the other 22 on Prince started licking and chewing, yawning, lowering his head and he was a totally different horse... well he was a totally different horse to what he was earlier... he was back to my normal Prince.
I then sent Prince back out on the circle to test my theory.... and it was really interesting. Prince was relaxed, he was responding to the pressure instead of blowing through it, we got some AMAZING change of directions, Prince could walk and trot on a close range circle no problem, canter with slack in the line and maintain the canter. It was really, really interesting to say the least. I was really glad to have my normal Prince back that was for sure. Prince and I did a little bit of traveling circle at the canter. Prince likes cantering on a traveling circle a lot better then when we are standing still but we have to get good a both so we practice both!! But only the traveling circle when we aren't going to run into anyone else ;)
After that I put my 12ft line back on and it was onto mounting from the neck. The first attempt wasn't very good. It was more my fault because I didn't land right on Prince's neck... but the second time IT WAS INCREDIBLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I landed right, Prince knew exactly what he was doing, and this time he really put effort into doing it. I felt a HUGE amount of power lifting my up. It was an amazing feeling!! It really helped that I had my coat on also because it took some of the friction away. We rested for a while before heading off. I was planning on doing follow the rail bridleless but then when I saw that my mom had set the barrels up for something she was doing with Knightly I thought that I would take advantage of them [while not getting in her way of course] and do some point to point at the trot. Prince and I haven't done that in a LONG time so it was fun. After the we trotted to one barrel Prince knew almost exactly what he was supposed to do. We trotted a couple times back and forth and I hardly needed to correct Prince. Then one time my mom called me over to see something.... both Ruffy and Twosox were lying down, in almost the exact same position, about 10ft from each other sleeping. It was so sweet!!!
On our way back to the barrel I am not sure what happened but Prince pinned his ears [did I even tell you that Prince is really cute when he pins his ears ;)] and did a little buck. I stayed on and we kept going. Then on our way back to the other barrel [after we had had a rest at the barrel we were going to] Prince threw in two more little bunny hops. It was really funny actually!!! I mean if I had come off I probably wouldn't have been laughing and I don't know why I had smile but anyways. I didn't feel the need to get off so we kept on going. Then took a rest at the barrel we were supposed to be trotting too. Then we headed back to the other barrel. Prince didn't buck this time, which was good ;) buck I decided to switch the game up a little, instead of resting at each other barrels we would trot to the one barrel, walk around the end and then trot back to the other barrel... a figure eight... but with out Prince knowing it ;) You see since both Prince and I really don't like riding Figure eights I figured this way it would be fun for both of us. We did a couple of these and Prince really was getting the hang of it so we stopped. While we were riding here and there I would stop using my reins and just use my savvy string. Prince did well and was really light.
After I got off Prince we played at Liberty a little bit. Prince wasn't convinced that he should stick with me. It was fun though! We did some Stick to me [w/t/c], close range circles, draw to me at the trot and some other stuff. I set the barrels up in the corral and asked Prince to jump them but he decided not to and took off. We played around with that a little but Prince didn't want to so I put him back online and then he jumped them. Prince was being a little lazy though and when he jumped the barrels he knocked one because he wasn't putting a whole lot of effort into it. So then there was only one barrel left. I asked Prince to jump that one. At first he just ran around it. But then he figured out what I wanted and jumped right over it.
We ended there. I took the halter off and then sat on the tire and we did some undemanding time. At first Prince went over to the gate but then he came over and sniffed me out and they stayed with me for a while before I had to go. It was fun!!!
~Keri
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment