Prince and Twosox play time...

January 21 2010

After lunch I went out and caught both Prince and Twosox. I wanted to try playing with both of them at the same time. We played around in the corral for a little bit before going up to the riding ring. We did yo-yo's, circles, Touch it [each horse standing on a pedestal], sideways and some other stuff. They both did well. Prince wasn't to sure he wanted to participate but he still did well.

Then we went up to the riding ring. One thing I noticed right away was that Twosox was WAY lighter then Prince. I knew that Twosox was light but when I compared the two it was a huge difference. Of course Twosox being a more centered RBI and Prince being a LBI there will be a difference. So I had to take a couple minutes and play with Prince to get his mind engaged and in tune with me. Then we went and did some traveling circles and jumping. It was interesting... fun but interesting. After a bit I decided to let Twosox go and then continue playing with Prince. I had a couple things I wanted to play with so I let Twosox go and then came back to Prince. I was only on a 12ft line but that was perfectly fine because Prince and I played with Rhythm, relaxation and connection on the circle. At first Prince was pulling and there was NO slack what so ever. So we did some spirals and some different things then Prince softened and started really getting connected with me. Prince's trot softened as he figured out how to use different parts of his body to circle on a smaller circle. Then we did transitions walk/trot/canter/stop/back-up. Prince then started putting more and more slack in the line and by the end the belly of the rope was on the ground for 90% of the time. It was REALLY cool! That is something we will have to keep playing with until it is consistent.

It is interesting because Twosox will circle with the belly of the rope on the ground and I didn't even have to ask for it but with Prince we have to play with it and get his mind totally on me (or at least more on me and anything else) before he will put the belly of the rope on the ground. Especially at the canter. It is fun to play with it and see Prince getting mentally collected to the point where he can circle on the 12ft line, w/t/c and have the rope on the ground. We also did some Change of directions. At first they were a little sticky but after a couple Prince would keep the belly of the rope on the ground from start to finish. Hopefully that will transfer over to when he is on the 22ft line :) We also did some Stick to me at the walk/trot/canter. Prince is getting even better at our Stick to me at the canter. He will canter about 6ft from me now!

After that I felt that Prince was ready to ride so I decided to try our mounting by the neck. The first attempt would have been perfect if I hadn't fallen off the other side.... I guess I jumped to hard even though I landed on Prince's neck okay I slid off the other side. Poor Prince. The next time was much better and I stayed on. Prince took a couple steps forward but other then that it was great! Or at least it felt great... I am not sure how it looked... ;)

While we were riding we did Follow the rail, Point to point, Figure eights at the trot [first time ever doing them while totally bareback], Sideways [getting Prince straighter while going sideways], Dragging the sled which was really fun, we even trotted a bit! We did some other things also. One other thing we did was I want to start standing on Prince while he was walking so we took the first step and I knelt on him and asked him to walk we walked for about 10ft then stopped. Prince wasn't quite sure what to think about it and once he put a little buck in [very little] but I think that was just because he wasn't sure what he was supposed to do. It was fun though!  We also played around with pivoting on the hing quarters. Prince is getting a lot better at that and I found that he does even better when use a supporting rein. 

So all in all it was a really good play time. Prince and I did A LOT in our ride. It was fun. The weather has been incredible also. It was been warmer and sunny. So I can't complain! :)

Naturally,
~Keri