Doing the unexpected...

Today I went outside to play with Prince... but I was prepared that he was probably going to not want anything to do with me. So I decided to do all everything that Prince wouldn't expect.

So to start with I went up to the riding ring and talked to mom for a little while then went and gave Ruffy and Twosox some attention.... plus some treats.... that got Prince's attention. He came up to me and wanted some so I gave him some then didn't pay any attention to him. I went back up to the riding ring and Ruffy followed. So I spent some time rubbing him. Then went down to the corral and rubbed Twosox then I really softly asked Prince to move his hindquarters over. He did and then stood there looking at me. After a couple minutes I really softly asked him to come to me. He slowly wanted over to me but I didn't touch him until he touched me. I sat on the one pedestal and we just spent some time there then I started massaging Prince's legs. I did all four. Prince lowered his head and relaxed. Then he started sniffing the halter. So I picked it up and started rubbing him all over with it. Then Prince bent his head around (I was in the same position I would be in if I was going to halter him) and kept it there. So even though I wasn't planning on haltering his I put the halter on and then kept on rubbing Prince.

After a little while I picked up the rope and just started swinging the end of it. Prince was bothered by that a little bit so I kept with it until he stopped moving around then I stopped. After that he was fine with it. It was a "How interesting" though because Prince has never had a problem with it before. Prince offered to stand on the pedestal so I took it then I asked him to move his hind quarters over using the porcupine game. He was really light!

Then I asked Prince to back out of the corral. He got a little confused and climbed back up onto the pedestal again then he put all four feet up. But in the end we got it and backed about 20ft with me in zone 5 and I didn' t use the rope once! Just the carrot stick and then at the end it was just my body. Prince was so light!

I was trying to think of a different way to get to the hill so I decided to ask Prince to back through a little gap between a rock ledge and some trees. The horses have a path there anyways so I knew he could fit ;) Prince did really well and had a big lick and chew over it at the end. I didn't really have a plan of what I wanted to do when we got up to the riding ring so I decided that we would play around and see how much we could do with the belly of the rope on the ground (it was a 12ft line also). We played stick to me part way up the hill and then did zone 5 driving up the rest. Then instead of going right in I sat on the bottom rail (the top one is broken) and we stayed there for a while. Then I asked Prince to step over the board and into the corral but stop part way so that his front feet where on the inside and his back feet where on the outside. At first he wasn't to sure about it so it took a couple tried until he figured it out and was able to do it. He did really well considering he the ground is quite a bit higher in the riding ring then on the outside and so he had to step up and over the rail.

After that I asked Prince to go sideways over a barrel while I kept my feet still, then we went and played around with a tire. I asked Prince to put both of his front feet into it and also just his one back foot. It was a little harder for him to figure out that I wanted his back foot in but he figured it out. The whole time there was slack in the rope. After that we did some circles... but it was a little bit different this time because I asked Prince to stay walking and then walk over the pedestal each time he got to it. At first he would stop on the pedestal each time he got to it so I would just softly ask him to go again and he would. At first his had a look on his face like "Great . Circles." But after about the second lap he started getting connected and the look on his face changed completely. He kept the belly of the rope on the ground the whole time and even started blowing and his head lowered. It was really interesting to see him figure out the puzzle. A couple times when he got to the pedestal he would climb up with his front to feet.... then his hind legs..... then he would walk over it. Thinking his way through it the whole time. It was really neat to watch!

I stopped when he was able to walk over it with hardly a hesitation at all. The whole time he kept the slack in the line and the belly of the rope on the ground. Even when he offered to trot a couple time the rope didn't come off the ground. So that was a huge improvement from last session!

After a long rest I took the halter off and Prince and I stayed there for a while spending some undemanding time together before I opened the gate.We didn't play long but it was a really fun session. It was amazing how light Prince was! So hopefully Prince enjoyed it as much as I did! :)

Naturally,
~Keri