Sunday, November 28, 2010

Prince: Overcoming resistance little by little

November 26 2010

When Prince and I went up to the riding ring things were starting to melt a little and so it wasn't quite to icy but it still wasn't safe enough to move around a lot. So I decided to play with picking up his feet and holding them between my legs, like I do when I am trimming. Prince has gotten a million times better and there is no doubt about that... the fact that he will even let me hold his feet, let a lone between my legs, is a major improvement from a year ago when I started trimming him.  But I can feel just the slightest bit of resistance when I got to put his foot between my legs and when I am finished and put the foot back on the ground.

So what we played with today was basically friendly game. I would put his foot in the right position so I didn't have to hold it with my hands and then I would rub him all over, scratching him etc and then I would play around with his foot, then hold it in a different position then slowly put it down, making sure that it was my idea the whole way.

Prince started to get the idea and by the end I could put his foot between my legs, rub him all over, then put it down and he didn't resist it. It was a great improvement. I did this with all four feet and each time it got better and better. By the time I got to his other front foot I didn't feel any resistance when I picked it up and got it into position but there was just a little bit when I let it go, it felt more like he was taking it back. So we played with that a bit and then once he had softened we ended.

He stayed with me at Liberty for a while before we both headed down to the corral. One thing that I noticed that was different about the way that Prince walked down the hill compared to the other two that walked down the hill was that Prince didn't look twice at the ice. He just walked down it, walked through the deep spots, over the water, he just crossed what ever was in his way.... I guess that is the mountain pony in him still ;)

Naturally,
~Keri

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