Twosox: Connection... in a different way.

December 28 2010

Just after I haltered Twosox this morning and as we were heading up towards the riding ring I had a BFO that I don't find it easy to connect with Twosox. Maybe because he is a more challenging horse so I find it hard to really connect but for what ever reason I just have a really hard time finding what makes him tick and what motivates him? 

One thing that I haven't tried really is using treats to motivate him. I know that Twosox is more confident more now but I have never really viewed him as a LBI so I haven't really used that as a strategy. So today I decided to try that and also to just play around and see if I could find how to get into Twosox's mind. 

We started out by doing some circles. I asked Twosox to trot 4 laps in both directions, which he did very well so then we played with Changes of directions. At first Twosox would do an okay change of direction but he was only responding when he felt the rope and so he wasn't really listening to my body. Then when he did change direction he would take off and we would loose connection. So we played with them until he was more connected to me and he was able to maintain gait, which was the trot, through out the whole change of direction. 

I think doing these first really helped because it got both Twosox and I into a good frame of mind and I was able to have a pretty good idea of where Twosox was mentally. Also using treats at a reward seemed to make a positive difference in Twosox. 

Up next were Figure eights! These went a lot better than the last time we did them. We used the same type of pattern that I am using with the other horses, using circles and Figure eights to keep things interesting and different. Twosox did really well and we ended when we got one really nice figure eight at the trot with rhythm, relaxation and connection. 

We also did some sideways, Touch it and some other smaller, but fun, things. One thing we did was I asked Twosox to jump a single barrel that was lying down in the middle of the riding ring. Twosox did it on the first try which was really cool because we haven't done that in a long time and never when the barrel was away from the fence. 

We ended after that. It was a great session. I am still processing it all and trying to figure out how this session will effect our next session and all but I am really happy with how well this play time went. 

Naturally,

~Keri