July 6 2010
After I played with Twosox I played with Prince. We didn't do a whole lot because it was so hot and Prince gets really hot really fast. In the corral we did some spins at Liberty. Prince has gotten really good at those and he will now do two in a row. Then we went up to the riding ring and we played with pushing the ball and Figure eights. I have to say, our figure eights were incredible!! Better then they have ever been. Prince is seeing as a really fun game now instead of a job. At first it was a little messy but then it started getting better. I debated whether to stop there or continue on a little bit further and stop when Prince was putting effort into going around the ends. I decided to continue on. It was the right thing to do because if I had of stopped, yes the figure eights would have been okay but Prince wasn't putting a lot of effort into going around the one end. So when we did even he cantered around one end, trotted through the middle and around the other end, all with a lot of effort. Plus the belly of the rope was almost on the ground and Prince was asking questions the whole time. It was really cool!
The look on Prince's face when I disengaged him and asked him to come in was priceless! So again it just showed me that when I am patiently persistent in the proper position we get amazing results. After that we just stood still for a couple minutes because Prince was sweating a little bit. Once he had cooled off a little bit I got up to ride. I started with just my savvy string for one rein and things were going well. We did Follow the rail, walk/trot/back up transitions, indirect and direct rein, sideways and pushing the ball, which Prince really loves! That is all he wanted to do!!! I think we shall have a lot of fun with that ball.
Then I took off the halter and we rode around bridleless. Now the interesting thing is this, when I had a my savvy string I had to be really careful how and when I used it. If I used it at the wrong time or at the right time but with to much pressure (which was hardly any pressure at all) Prince would move his hindquarters. So I had to be really careful, especially when I was asking Prince to pivot on his hindquarters. So when I took his halter off and we rode bridleless everything was so much easier! Everything was light, soft, and I wasn't bothering Prince's head at all.
We did have to play with sideways. I am still trying to figure out exactly what I need to do in my body so that Prince knows the difference between a direct rein and sideways. I am getting somewhere though. It is a lot easier with reins because I can help him be where he needs to be but then I can quickly start micromanaging him. We finally got it though. Hopefully when we ride next I will remember it all and everything will go well.
So yeah, it was a really fun play time even though it wasn't really that long :)
Naturally,
~Keri
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