May 16, 2011
It looked like rain this morning and afternoon but we never got more than a few drops here and there. Twosox and I had a great little session today that mainly had to do with respect while grazing. I had taken Twosox out to the back yard to graze as the grass in getting rather long. He would wait until I gave him permission and then start eating but after I had given him that permission he sort of "forgot" about me, pulling on the rope when ever he wanted to reach for different grass etc.
So I would allow him to eat for a couple minutes and then ask him to move around and do something and then allow him to eat again. This took a little while I seeing as I also wanted to play with him and not just let him eat it worked out very well. We did things like sideways from zone three from 22ft away, which at first didn't go very well because Twosox wasn't seeing me as someone to listen to more than absolutely necessary. After we got a few good, soft steps sideways I would give him permission to eat again and go back to neutral.
Some other things that we did were circles. There is a slight hill in our back yard so it was perfect for doing a little bit of Hill Therapy while we were there. Twosox by this time was responding better and better and so we did two or three circles in each direction with a nice, soft, very smooth and light change of direction between them. At first he was a little unsure about going until a tree branch that was hanging low but by the end he could trot under it with no issues.
Then I gave Twosox a longer break while still requiring him to maintain the slack in the rope. He did much better. We ended with doing zone five driving with one line from the back yard to the corral. Twosox was so much more confident and relaxed about it this time as compared to last day. Then we went into the corral and I unhaltered and then hung out with all three horses for a little while before going to get some things ready to play with Prince.
Naturally,
~Keri
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