Ruffian: Touch it, circles and more

January 12 2011

This morning I played with Ruffian. It is still very icy in the riding ring so we couldn't play there, unfortunately. So I decided to play in the corral and eventually go out onto the front yard and play there then end up over by the garage and give Ruffian his supplements then play our way over to the corral again. 

Everything went according to plan as we started in the corral with playing with the pedestals. Then we did circles with walk/trot transitions and changes of directions. I was very careful this time though to make sure that I didn't do to many changes of directions and because at this point if I do to many Ruffian will get worried and feel really pressured. So we would do one and then do some transitions and more circles and then do another one and keep it fairly consistent. That seemed to work really well and Ruffian stayed left brain and confident through out the whole thing. 

Then we did some Touch it. Ruffian seemed really introverted so we did that until he relaxed and started releasing some tension. Then we went and played with backing through the gate. At first Ruffian wanted to rush back just to get to the other side so we kept going in and out in and out until he stopped making assumptions and started asking questions. 

After that we did some Falling leaf, sideways, hindquarter disengagements, and yo-yo's then by the time we had done all that we were over by the garage and Ruffian and I went in through the little door to get the grain pan. I have been playing recently with getting the horses used to being in the garage with the big door closed. Just another trailer simulation!! Ruffian was actually really relaxed. Twosox doesn't like it and isn't confident so we have been playing with it a lot. 

We went back outside so Ruffian could eat his supplements and then we moseyed over to the corral where I un-haltered him. He stayed with me though and so I rubbed him and hung out for a bit before going inside.

We are doing some renovations in our living room so my assistance was needed in there :) 

Naturally,

~Keri