February 25 2011
Well Prince and I had a lot of fun today. I decided to really test our liberty and go onto the front yard and play! We had a blast and Prince only left once when he got a bit confused when we were doing sideways and he was about 22ft away from me.
First though we did bridling and yet again Prince did splendidly well. The first time I got the bridle right on him and all done up!! Success!!! Prince took the bit no problem. He is already reaching for the bit even before I am ready!! Then since the first one went so well we just played with getting Prince a little more soft about taking the bit out. He will still toss his head a bit so we played with that and on the last one Prince lowered his head and I took the bit out nicely while Prince kept his head low. It was really nice!!
After that we headed out and played on the front yard. At first I didn't have my carrot stick so we walked across the front yard and over to the garage to get that. Then I let Prince graze for a couple minutes, the snow is melting a little on the paths that we have kept shoveled so there is some grass exposed.
Then after a couple minutes of grazing we did yo-yo's down the many paths my little brothers made, squeeze games between the snow banks and hockey nets, we played with the big green ball rolling it and bouncing it a little, then we spent some time playing with going sideways from one hockey net to the other which were about 25ft apart. My goal was to get it so that I could stand at one net and send Prince sideways to the other net.
Over all Prince did well but we had to break it down a little and I had to stand halfway between the nets and we started there. Prince did really well at this distance and started to get the pattern of going sideways to the net (but not through it!), stopping, sniffing it, having a rest and then going sideways to the other one.
The thing that I was most impressed about was how light Prince was when I asked him to go sideways. All I did was use my core energy and off he went. It wasn't just a slow, not-much-effort sideways. It was a fairly fast sideways. We ended when Prince was able to go sideways while I stood about 2ft from the net. So almost there!!!
After this we backed to the manger door and I climbed on Prince bareback and bridleless from the fence. Then we played with lateral flexions with the carrot stick, transitions, sideways, yo-yo's, indirect rein, direct rein/pivoting on the hindquarters, and some other things. Refining them and testing others that we haven't played with in a while because we haven't ridden in a while due to the ice.
I had to get off once because Prince was decided that he was going to go in the direction that he wanted, which I allowed him to do but then he started getting a bit pushy on the savvy string around his neck so I slid off did some porcupine games on the hindquarters, forequarters, chest and nose and then mounted back up.
A couple times Prince got a little bit confused about what I was asking so we played with those things and then we rode up and down our neighbour's drive way, which she doesn't mind us doing ;), and because it is small gravel and I want to get Prince used to and more comfortable walking on gravel so that when all the snow melts we can still go trail riding down the old railroad track (which is gravel).
We ended on a good note and then I got off and we walked back over to the corral. It was really fun and it was really cool to see how much our Liberty has improved over the last couple months :)
Naturally,
~Keri
Then after a couple minutes of grazing we did yo-yo's down the many paths my little brothers made, squeeze games between the snow banks and hockey nets, we played with the big green ball rolling it and bouncing it a little, then we spent some time playing with going sideways from one hockey net to the other which were about 25ft apart. My goal was to get it so that I could stand at one net and send Prince sideways to the other net.
Over all Prince did well but we had to break it down a little and I had to stand halfway between the nets and we started there. Prince did really well at this distance and started to get the pattern of going sideways to the net (but not through it!), stopping, sniffing it, having a rest and then going sideways to the other one.
The thing that I was most impressed about was how light Prince was when I asked him to go sideways. All I did was use my core energy and off he went. It wasn't just a slow, not-much-effort sideways. It was a fairly fast sideways. We ended when Prince was able to go sideways while I stood about 2ft from the net. So almost there!!!
After this we backed to the manger door and I climbed on Prince bareback and bridleless from the fence. Then we played with lateral flexions with the carrot stick, transitions, sideways, yo-yo's, indirect rein, direct rein/pivoting on the hindquarters, and some other things. Refining them and testing others that we haven't played with in a while because we haven't ridden in a while due to the ice.
I had to get off once because Prince was decided that he was going to go in the direction that he wanted, which I allowed him to do but then he started getting a bit pushy on the savvy string around his neck so I slid off did some porcupine games on the hindquarters, forequarters, chest and nose and then mounted back up.
A couple times Prince got a little bit confused about what I was asking so we played with those things and then we rode up and down our neighbour's drive way, which she doesn't mind us doing ;), and because it is small gravel and I want to get Prince used to and more comfortable walking on gravel so that when all the snow melts we can still go trail riding down the old railroad track (which is gravel).
We ended on a good note and then I got off and we walked back over to the corral. It was really fun and it was really cool to see how much our Liberty has improved over the last couple months :)
Naturally,
~Keri
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