Ruffian: Playing on the 45ft line...

May 17, 2011

 Today the horses left before Mom and I got out so we went out to the back field to find them. Ruffian was the easiest horse to catch -- "Catch the easiest horse first" as Mr. Parelli says -- so I haltered Ruffian and we played. I had the 45ft line because for the next while I want play only on the 45ft line. Ruffian was so connected and kept the slack in the line the whole time. It was really amazing.

Everything was going well and we were getting some really nice circles but when I asked Ruffian for a change of direction he stepped over the rope (my fault for not managing the rope better) I decided just to let go of the rope and then catch Ruffian again. Ruffian would have been fine except the other horses started running around and since the rope started dragging Ruffian got scared. But eventually I was able to catch Ruffian again and my 45ft got a nice trip through the bush, mud, water, grass, and etc :) 

Then we played our way back to the field and then did a lot of approach and retreat with my coat that I had taken off and left on the grass before. Ruffian thought it was really scary so we would do squeeze games, circles to the threshold and then stop, backup and go the other way, and kept doing this until he was able to walk up to it and sniff it. After this he was convinced that it was safe and commenced to eat it in a typical Left Brain Extrovert fashion. 

Mom had put her coat on a log so we then went and checked that out, Ruffian had by this time figured out that coats where not scary and could be eaten. So we checked that out then we did some yo-yo's, sideways and lots of traveling circles! Ruffian loved the extra room but still kept the slack in the line, which was great! 

Then we finished by checking out a big rock and pawing it then I sat down and unhaltered Ruffian. He stayed with me for a little while and then he moseyed off and I went and played with Prince. 

Naturally,

~Keri