Surprise! There were none.
So, now we wait.
In the meantime, my little
Today, we worked on moving in a circle, both directions, on a line, and following me into large puddles and standing. I broke the sessions into three parts because during the first one he just had a helluva lot of energy and needed to work through it. There was bucking, running, pulling, and rearing, and he worked up quite a sweat. I ended on a positive note and put him back.
Later, I came back out and he had improved 100% following me into puddles, but didn’t want to do a circle on the lead to the right. Again, he did some rearing, he even appeared to be striking, but with the help of a long whip to block him, he finally let me onto his right side and circled right.
The last session, I armed myself with my crop ahead of time. He did excellent into and through puddles, he explored the arena, through tall, wet snow, and he backed up with a wave of the crop. But again, he wasn’t happy with me on the right side and he didn’t want to go right. However, I was faster than him, and able to consistently beat him and stay at his side, allowing me to both push him forward AND keep his head turned in. No rearing. Oh, he thought about it, but that door was closed.
Touché! I won.
Poor thing looked dejected without all his tricks, but he was also much sweeter.
Now, if those baby balls would just drop down so we can chop them off and turn him out.
LOL, those balls are too scared to come down! :) :)
ReplyDeleteI bet they are. Quite tricky little things. 😂
DeleteI think 5 to 10 minutes of in hand work every day will do wonders for his 'tude!
ReplyDeleteI agree! He tends to get very full of himself if left to his own devices. When I got back from Texas, I was cleaning his stall while he ate, and he started backing up to kick me with his ears pinned—I smacked him with the end of the rake, and he immediately looked dejected. My daughter had been cleaning his stall while I was gone and she said he tried to push her around, so he probably had temporary confusion on who he was dealing with.
DeleteThey're in there somewhere and just waiting to make an appearance. They may be hiding knowing they're heading for the chopping block though.
ReplyDelete