Ruffian: Don't be afraid but do what I say...

Sept 13 2010

Ruffian and I had an interesting playtime. After I haltered him we did some friendly game. Ruffian wasn't sure about the carrot stick. It was something that I have noticed over the past couple play times. Nothing major but I think he lost confidence when we started taking things to the next level and he lost a little bit of confidence and I didn't help him soon enough. 

So we did some extreme friendly game until he relaxed. As soon as he lowered his head I released. Pretty soon he was confident with that so we moved on. We went up into the riding ring and did some Figure eights. Ruffian got away once. But the next time he tried it I didn't let go and he didn't try again. Our Figure eights were pretty good though. He put a lot of effort into it.

Through out the whole play time we played with doing everything with confidence. Ruffian can very easily get unconfident and go internal, even if it just for a second or two. So we played with that. Basically I said "Don't be afraid, but do what I say" Ruffian will normally do what I ask but he will have his head high. So we played with that. Pretty soon Ruffian was doing what I asked, with effort and his head was lower. 

Then I decided to try something new. The goal was to have Ruffian keep his head a couple inches from the ground and I walk from one side to the other. We got really close but Ruffian wasn't confident with me being in zone 1 and his head being low. Interesting!! So I played lots of friendly game in zone 1. What would happen was that Ruffian would turn his head just a little as I passed in front of him. Pretty soon Ruffian was keeping his head low and was really confident. 

That was where we ended. It was a really great note to end on and it was a good playtime all in all. 

Naturally,

~Keri