The Game of Contact - Day Three

Today was day three. I was only able to do bridling and bit isolations as circumstances didn't allow me to do anything else.

Bridling was good. Prince is starting to go directly for the bit instead of exploring most of the bridle looking for a treat. That is an improvement. Prince didn't mouth the bit as much as I was doing everything up either. Another improvement. Bit isolations were amazing! Prince was light and was stretching even more!

I also tried using the reins. Just to get a feel for what that would be like. At first Prince assumed lateral flexion but with some patient persistence he got it and would stretch nice and low. After I played with getting Prince to seek the bit even more and actually take it all by himself. He caught on fairly quickly. I did have to raise it a little once he had taken it as he kept dropping it but after a few tries he was able to take it all by himself and keep it. Also Prince had learned in the past to invade me space, with his head and neck, a little while I unbridled him so we played with him keeping his head/ neck straight and still low. He figured it out and so we ended with a really nice bridling and unbridling.

I started playing with bridling with Twosox as he was curious about it all. It took a few times before he figured out how to get the treat, and it was not by pushing the bit away and taking it ;) The last one was really nice and smooth! So we ended on that one.

Anyways, tomorrow is my last full day at home before back to work I go for the rest of the week. So I am really hoping to be able to ride! I want to play with some Game of Contact stuff with Prince, and Lord willing ride Twosox and maybe Knightly. My plan is to focus on their freestyle for the next few months and get that going well and build on their foundation.

Until tomorrow!

Naturally,
~Keri-Lynn