This afternoon I played with Ruffian. When I went out he was lying down in the corral so I went and sat with him for about 20 minutes at one point I just leaned right against him and would have probably fallen asleep too but the sun was right in my eyes ;). After he had a good nap he then got up and then I haltered him. He brought his head around and waited very patiently while I haltered him. Then we went over to the other side of the corral and Ruffy took another nap. He was really tired today ;) Don't blame him :)
We played for a while in the corral. I asked Ruffy to put two feet on each pedestal, back through the gate, go sideways towards the fence and over a pole (at the same time), come sideways towards me, lead by the leg, and some other things. Then I decided to try something different and I put the rope in between Ruffian's front and hind legs (so that it was going straight under him) and then I asked him to back up towards me. At first he wasn't sure what to do and so he turned and faced me but then he figured it out and he backed up really softly. What a clever horse!
After that we played Stick to me up the hill and then when we got up to the riding ring we did some circles, traveling circles, change of directions, transitions, Touch it from 22ft away (Ruffy put all four feet on the pedestal while I was standing about 21ft away!), we did drawing in at the trot, sideways, and lots of other fun stuff. One thing we did was I asked Ruffy to put his front to feet on the pedestal and then I asked him to porcupine his hind quarters around the pedestal. He did so well! For the most part it was all at a phase 1 maybe 2!!
Ruffy was in a great mood. He was very much like his old self... just not quite as playful! But he really wanted to cuddle! He would come and softly put his head really close to you and the fall asleep! After a while I decided to try some two line zone 5 driving. Ruffy did really well considering he hasn't done it in a while. He got a little bit confused once or twice but in the end he was responding to the pressure really well. We ended when we got some really nice walk, trot, walk, halt, back up transitions. Ruffy learns so quickly! :)
After that we went over to the big tractor tire that is standing up and I climbed up and asked Ruffy to line up to it as if I was going to get on. He did and was totally fine with me lying over him, having one knee on his back and lots of other stuff. What was really nice was that he didn't go internal like he usually did in the fall. Today he was looking around, sniffing my leg, and all the signs that he was confident! It was such a pleasant sight! I didn't get on him but that was perfectly fine. I had the bareback pad on him and am hoping to get him used to having something on him again.
Once I let him go he didn't want to leave. He stayed right with me and so we spent some more undemanding time and even when I opened the gate he didn't want to leave but I needed to close it so I softly asked him out and he just walked a couple steps, turned around and came back and stood behind me for the rest of the time that I was up there.
I had a lot of fun playing with Ruffy and I am hoping to be able to play with him at least once a week... plus still play with my two horses. I figure that I should be able to play with both Prince and Twosox twice a week plus play with Ruffian once and then trim on Wednesdays... and have Fridays and Sundays off! It will be busy but totally worth it! At least it should be fun ;)
Naturally,
~Keri
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