July 17 2010
This morning I slept in a little bit because I was really tired. So I only played with Prince but we had an absolutely incredible play time. Not so much in what we did, even though we did a lot of fun things, but it was what I learned that make it really amazing.
I decided to play on the 45ft line today. I knew that since I would be playing in the riding ring we wouldn't be able to use it all but that was okay. I wasn't planning on doing a lot. Just advancing some small things. We first did the Weave at the walk from about 35ft away. Prince did really well and basically did the weave by himself. On the way back to the other end of the riding ring where we started Prince offered to trot so I took it. I wasn't sure if he would stay in tune with me but to my surprise he did! He trotted the whole thing and was light and responsive!
Then I backed Prince out to the end of the 45ft line. I remember when that used to be a really big issue. Prince would get about 25ft out and then stop because I couldn't get effective with my rope when he was that far away. It took a while and he still doesn't do it perfectly but he will back all the way out to the end and it is at a phase 1 or 2. We shall have to play with getting the speed now that we are getting the lightness though. But it shall come!
I gave Prince a really long rest at the end of the rope. There was a pole that was there so I asked him to back over it and stay on the far side of it. That way he had a purpose and a job too! I decided to sit on the ground and ask him to come to me. He did and then after a while I sent him over to the pedestal, while I was still sitting and I wanted him to put one foot on the pedestal. He was doing well but he wouldn't leave the foot there so we kept playing with it but then he shifted his weight and put his other foot up. I decided that I wanted his other foot though, the one we started with so I had the challenge of getting him to shift his weight and pick up right foot which was the one that we started with, all the while sitting on the ground. It wasn't to challenging but it made us both think and soon Prince figured the puzzle out.
I was going to end there but then I decided that I wanted to play with some transitions on the circle. So I sent Prince off. He went off at a trot, which I asked for, and was trotted nicely so we did some trot to walk, walk to halt, halt to trot transitions and lots of other ones. Then I asked him to canter. Now this is where I had a BFO. At first Prince would trot faster but not canter so I would have to come out of my circle and go up my phases then he would canter. After a couple of these I realized what I was doing! I would pick up my life and then I would smooch and then cluck twice... don't ask me why. I think it has something to do with the fact that I can't cluck very good... so Prince would hear the smooch which means trot so he would trot faster. But I wanted the canter so I would go up my phases and then he would canter but almost all the time he would be cross firing, counter cantering etc he was rushed into the canter and we would loose the connection.
So when I realized what I was doing I started only clucking twice and guess what!?! Prince went from a nice relaxed trot into the canter! He didn't canter for long but that was okay. He still tried! I couldn't believe it! So we did a couple more transitions like that and Prince was the same, he went into the canter really nicely from a relaxed trot. I couldn't believe how something so small could make such a huge difference, well I know that small things do make big differences but this just reaffirmed it! It was definitely a BFO!!
I brought Prince in and gave him a long rest, more for me to lick and chew then him I am sure. Then I took the halter off and we spent some time scratching him and just hanging out. I can hardly wait for our next play time to play with it more!!
Naturally,
~Keri
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