Prince: Long rein driving

May 16, 2011

Because Prince still seems to be having a hard time accepting the bit I decided to try doing long rein driving that way I could fully concentrate on it and not have to think about much else, verses riding where I have to think about more at once. Bridling was easy. Prince didn't have any hesitation about taking the bit in his mouth. Since I do not have the Featherlight lines I tied a few savvy strings together and that did a good enough job for now. Hopefully I will be able to get the real Featherlight lines eventually. 

Prince was very light in turning, going and stopping but he constantly had his mouth open. So I am not sure what to do. I am out of strategies. So we ended when he was doing better though and was able to do lateral flexions from zone five on both sides, turn at the walk, stop and back up with his mouth being open less. Than I let him graze for a couple minutes and then I unbridled. Now this is where the truth hurts... I wanted to let Prince lick the honey off of the bit before putting it away but Prince wanted nothing to do with it. This is definitely an "Oh Boy" situation :) So we played with it until he would lick the bit clean and then we went onto other things. 

Prince was now at Liberty because I didn't have a halter on so we walked around and went up to the garage to see Mom and Knightly. I looped a savvy string around his neck and then we practiced our ground tying while I went and picked up all four of Knightly's feet. Mom has been getting him more comfortable in the garage so that I can trim Knightly in there through the bug season but she asked me to come in and pick up his feet and see how it was doing with that now. He did great and was way more confident and comfortable in there than I have ever seen him. 

Prince stood where I put him the whole time and then I went and picked up all four of his feet, I think that kind of blew his mind because normally I don't do much with his feet unless I am trimming them or just massaging them (which I am doing a lot more of recently). Prince stood very well and only had a little trouble with one back foot when he spooked at a tree that was being cut down and moved by my brothers, it was a small tree :) 

Then we went over to the other side of the yard and did some mounting from almost the ground. When I say almost I mean I was about 1 1/2 - 2 inches off the ground, just standing on a thin rock. It took a couple tries at first but Prince stood well and in the end I was able to mount from both sides!! I am making sure to be able to do it from both sides and I want to building my muscles evenly and not be one sided ;) 

After that I dismounted and then backed Prince through the gate and into the corral where we spent some time scratching itchy spots and hanging out together before I headed inside. 

It was cooler today so the blackflies were in hiding! Hooray ;) It was a nice treat. 

Naturally,

~Keri