Twosox: Responsibility #4: Look where you are going!

June 9 2010

This morning Twosox and I played with his responsibility to look where he is going. We went out to play in the field where we figured the horses would be. They weren't there but as we were walking through the field Twosox came from the bushes and came over to us. He is so sweet! The other horses were still no where to be seen. Mom and I rubbed Twosox and then Ruffian came from a different path... then a couple minutes later Knightly, Prince still didn't show up. That was fine though. I scratched Twosox for a bit and then haltered him. I had to trim Prince today so I didn't play with him. Then Ruffian and Knightly decided to leave and head home, still no Prince. So I called Prince. He came from the woods shortly after. He stuck around for a bit and then joined the other horses heading homeward. Twosox got worried because he was left behind. So we started doing some different things, I wanted to give him a job. We did some Touch it first and then we did some falling leaf. That really helped Twosox. He was calmer but not really really calm yet so we kept playing. Then we did some circles. But I picked the spot where he would really have to watch were he was going. He had to think and not just run away with himself. He tried to get away a couple times, but I knew what happened before what happened happened. So I was prepared. 

By this time Twosox was switching between dominance and being worried. It was fun to read the difference! At first Twosox was tripping over things and not really watching where it was going so we kept going until he wasn't tripping. Then we moved to another spot where he had to go down a little gully and then it was flat for a couple strides and then over a hill and such. He did really well and maintained gait the whole time. 

Once Twosox was calm and left brain I decided to go find the other horses. My 22ft line was very muddy and gross. So I switched to my 45ft line. I really want to play with getting Twosox out on a longer line but he wasn't in the frame of mind to do that today, plus the mosquitoes where really bad. The horses actually weren't that far away. We hung around with them for a bit and then we headed over to the big stump and I asked Twosox to climb up. He wasn't to sure at first but pretty soon he put one foot up and almost put the second foot up but wasn't sure if he could do that. So we stopped there. Great place to end! 

When I let Twosox go he stayed with me and followed me when I walked away. It was really fun to play with the horse that showed up!! 

Naturally,

~Keri