Twosox: Playing around the shelter

March 31 2010

This morning I went out and played with Twosox. I went out extra early so that I could play with him before I had to trim Knightly. We didn't go up to the riding ring but stayed in the corral and played in and around the shelter. Twosox is really unconfident going in there because it is small and not much room to move around if the other horses come in. So I decided to play with that today. I did a little bit with Twosox on Monday and we played in the shelter but not a whole lot. It is important that he goes in there because that is where the salt and Hoffman's minerals are so if he doesn't go in he won't get any. At first he was really worried about even putting his head in so we played with that. Doing a lot of approach and retreat. Then we did some yo-yo's in and out, in and out etc etc until he was okay with that. After that we just did different things. I backed Twosox into the shelter from 20ft away, and some other things. Then to end I asked Twosox to stand at the back and we just hung out there for a while. A couple minutes after that Twosox really relaxed and started yawning and licking and chewing. It was so nice to see him relaxing instead of having a high head and being really tense. Twosox even started eating some of the Hoffman's minerals! Hooray! Success! When I took the halter off Twosox just stood there sleeping until I left and then he left. Hopefully he will go in there by himself now. 

Naturally,

~Keri