Twosox: Getting the mind engaged.

January 18 2011

Today I played with Twosox first. He came over to me first when I got to the corral and followed me around everywhere so I figured he probably wanted to be played with ;) He was being fairly mouthy and wanting to bite everything so I knew right from the start that I would have to get his mind engaged right away or else our playtime would not start on a good note and would probably be a very challenging session.

So we started with sideways which then led into sideways at a trot. Twosox caught on right away and we got some really nice sideways at a trot. It was incredible! Afterward I had to ask myself the question, was there anything different in me today that would have cause Twosox to get it so quickly and easily when it was so hard for Prince to get it just the other day? I boiled it down to the fact that with Twosox I rewarded the slightest try but with Prince I was being to critical in trying to just be particular. Hmmmm..... How interesting... 

After that we did some Touch it from different zones and then I asked Twosox to jump a single barrel which he did from a stand still :) Then we played with Mounting by the neck!! At first Twosox wasn't sure what I wanted, he would lower his head and keep it low while I bounced up and down but when I jumped up onto his neck he lowered it instead of raising it... can't blame him though ;) That seems to be a common issue when you first teach a horse this task. To make things a bit easier I decided to use the pedestal to help. That way I could help Twosox more and be in a little bit more of an athletic position. This made a big difference as I was able to put myself a little bit higher up on his neck and so he made it easier for Twosox. 

After some approach and retreat Twosox would let me jump on his neck (softly of course) and he would keep it still. So it was a big step and so then I played with teaching him to lift his head when I smooched. This went well and even though he didn't catch on right away he got the general idea towards the end because we were able to put it together and I was able to ask him to lower his head, I would jump up on it, smooch, and Twosox would raise his head, while keeping his head still :) So I decided to end there for the day and try it again next day. 

Twosox had a huge lick and chew and was yawning and yawning. It was great to see. When I let him go he stayed with me so we hung out for a bit and then Prince came over to me and I haltered him and we played :) 

Naturally,

~Keri