This afternoon I went out and played with Prince... despite the light flurries and over all gray weather. I am really glad that I did go out because Prince and I had a really fun play session. I decided not to catch Prince in the normal way so I walked into the corral and checked a couple things then after seeing that Prince wasn't interested I decided to try something really new (and something that Mrs. Parelli suggested in the Level 2 pack) and I picked up a small piece of frozen manure and flicked it at Prince. He didn't take much notice of it (or he didn't show on that he did) I got Ruffians and Twosox's attention thought! So I kept flicking pieces of manure at Prince until he turned and looked at me, then I turned and looked at the trees and the snow that was falling. After that Prince didn't take his eyes off me! A couple times he would look away just a little bit so I would start to turn around and he would look at me again. After a little while Prince came over to me then started licking and chewing... a lot! The look on his face was priceless though! He wasn't sure what to make of it ;)
Before I haltered Prince I scratched him, massaged his tail, and rubbed him with the halter then he bent his head around and waited for me to put the halter on. So I did. He was really patient while I put it on. Then after a couple minutes we went up to the riding ring. We played stick to me up the hill... man running up that hill in the snow is hard.
We didn't do a whole lot but what we did do was pretty big. We started off with played with don't change gait at the canter on the circle. I really have to do a better job a being consistent with that! I didn't ask Prince to canter right away. I let him trot a lap or so then asked him to canter. While he was trotting he kept the slack on the ground and trotted a nice circle. Our maintain gait at the canter needed some help.... after a while Prince cantered a lap so I brought him in and gave him a rest then asked him to go back out again. This time he was a little bit quicker at cantered a full circle. Prince really does a lot better when we are on a traveling circle. I didn't want to get Prince really sweaty so we stopped after that.
Then we went and did some zone 5 driving with two lines. Since we now have two 22ft lines it was really nice! The 45 is nice because it isn't as heavy but the 22ft lines are really nice because they don't get caught on everything! We started off with just some walk/trot transitions along the fence and then did some traveling circles at the trot (including change of directions), sideways, Touch it, yo-yo's, and a bunch of other stuff. Prince did really well and was really responsive! It was a little harder because the snow was kind of deep in some areas but other than that it was great!
After that I wanted to play around with our change of directions. I knew that they were broken so we needed to play with them. Prince did really well in keeping the belly of the rope on the ground. I think that having the extra 2 1/2 feet on the 22ft line really makes a difference. Our first couple change of directions weren't at all pretty. But after some experimenting, isolating, separating and recombining we got it figured out.... at least I think it is. It will make a couple more play sessions to see if what we did today worked but it was a good start. After that I brought Prince in and gave him a long rest. As I was standing beside Prince I suddenly realised just how short Prince really is.... it isn't his fault but he is short! I don't mind though. It just means that there is a better chance that I can jump up on him bareback some day ;)
After I took Prince's halter off but before I took it totally off I drove his hind quarters around in a full circle (something Mr. Parelli showed in the Level 3 Liberty DVD) Prince didn't leave once the halter was totally off. He just stood there and waited for me. We then played Stick to me over to the gate (which was already open) and then he slowly walked off. Part way over to the gate I stopped really quickly and Prince stopped also... then we continued on.
When I came back down into the corral Prince, Ruffian and Twosox all came over to me then Prince followed me over to the fence. It was a really fun play time. I am still on schedule so that is good! It all goes according to the plan I should be able to play with Twosox tomorrow and then Prince on Saturday! :)
Naturally,
~Keri
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