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Thursday 19 March 2009
Me and Andy had such a wonderful time together on Tueseday :) It was one of those days where just everything went right and we both had a blast :) Recently iv been licking and chewing my way through the Liberty and Horse Behaviour Set and have been paying pretty close attention to the section on reading your horse, is he; Dominante, Confident, Unconfident, Right Brain, Catatonic. I thought i put my knowledge to the test and so decided that today's session would 99% be about the friendly game :) I started with haltering Andy-obviously, but i sat in the floor this time, just to make it more interesting- not a problem, as soon as sat down Andy's nose followed me as if to say "Ooh, any cookies down here, what you doooooooing?" i slipped the halter on, then off, then on then of again, and then back on :) All whilst sat on the floor :) Then..errm.. we started swinging the rope over him back, neck, bum and around his legs- not a problem. I backed him away a little and began swinging the rope over my head and he walked straight back over, not faized at all :) Andy was obviously feeling pretty confident, i thought we'd go for something a little more challenging for the both of us, i went and got my 22 ft line and looped it through the tyre and began to drag it behind me , with Andy following, absolutly not fussed, in fact he was near draggin his nose on the floor wanting to sniff it, which i let him :) Then we did the same with the big traffic cone we have, also not a problm for Andy Pany, again he kept trying to catch up with to investigate :) Through out our friendly game i constantly observed Andy body language and tried my harest to listen to what he was telling me, if he got unconfident (Hardly ;)) id retreat , id wait for him to lick his lips before moving on to the next thing, which is what i think made the most difference :) Then i tried banging on the stable with the carrot stick, at first Andy went all starry eyes and took a few steps back so i started walking away and began rubbing the stable instead, waited for a lick of the lips then started tapping again and before long any walked over and stood with me whilst i carried on banging away like a crazy lady :) What Andy has to put up with, aye lol I thought that was enough licking and chewing for the both of us so to put a great end to a great session, we spend the last 5 minuets or so UDT :) I sat on the floor again, very lazy me, and again Andy lowerd his head to get rubs and scratches :) i toyed with taking the halter on and off again, then just didnt bother putting it back on and he stood with me for ages :) Me, still sat of the floor and Andy's nose nearly in my lap, it was awsome :) For him to want to stay with me was such a blissfull feeling. THANKS PARELLI :) As if today couldnt get any better, today was the first time id ever loose schooled blaze, she's got the idea of circling without changing gait or direction so i thougt it would be fun, I havnt taught blaze any of the seven games but i was able to draw her in to me at the end- which was just pure awsomeness :):):):):)
13:15
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Sunday 15 March 2009
This week as been a pretty awsome week for me and the ponies. For the first time in, i cant remember how many months, i rode Andy Pandy, following a really succesful play session. We had began learning driving from zone 3, the best way, i thought, to teach this to Andy Pandy was to involve cookies. So i dotted them all around the play area, on fence posts, cones, hid them in tyres, i even chopped up some apples and put them in the bath tub we have in the corner of the field (we use it as a water feeder.) Andy has already gotten really good at the touch it game, i can lead him over to with in a couple of meters of an obstical, point to it and he'll go over and investigate it for treats :). Andy was a little uncondident with me being in zone 3 to begin with, but as the session went on the only thing he had on his mind was going to the next obstical in hope that there might me a treat hidden there, athough i noticed that when i tried to be more particualr about what it was i wanted him to touch, he felt the pressure and would back up untill i was in his zone 1. Great Feedback! So i tried to be less critical and just try to build up his confidence in zone 3. I also found out this session how much Andy enjoys apple bobbing :) By the end of the session Andy was totaly calm, confident, and curious :) and my yard friend had asked if id like to tagg along with her on a trail ride, this i thought is a good as time as ever. Considering it was the first time he'd been out in probably a good 6 months he did perfectly :) Come our next session Andy was reluctant to do anything, he hid behind Shinobi in his stable, i lurded him out in the open and played lots of friendly game, he seemed quite unconfident to want to leave his wooden house so, we took it real slow, i sat on the floor to make sure he didnt feel under any pressure at all and rubbed him with the CS, soon the tension left his body his head lowered and then he was asleep! Okay, so now i have a confident horse but not a very motivated one, so we started playing touch it again, i put the odd treat around the stables so he wouldnt have to leave the saftey of his heard, and i drove him from place to place whilst in zon3, being the clever little pony Andy is, he picked it up straight away :) To cut an already too longer a story short by the end of the session me and andy were trotting from place to place with me in zone 3. Thats what i call confidence :) I was even driving him through a set of very narrow, zig-zagged poles i had layed on the ground :) Cool! We were also playing great porcupine games all at phases 1 and 2, squeeze games through the tighest of spaces, we even manged to get a whole circiut of the circle game without breaking gate or direction and we were doing all of this Calm, Confident and Willing :) The following day, it took a matter of minuets, if that, for Andy to catch me, okay so i had already walked kind of close to him but he swang his hind away to face me, did this a few times then he walked right over :) and we went out for our second ride of the week, i must admitt i did skimp abit of the "Pre flight Checks" Andy was calm and confident but we were definalty not connected and this showed when we went out, as good as he was, he did get a little unconfident at times. This the last bit i promise! As if this week couldnt get any better after the 5 minuet treck up the drive to the ponies field when i got to the gate Andy said "Hello" YAY!!!!!!!!!! I rode Blaze today too, which was wonderful, just around the field in walk, doing things like backing up, turn on the forhands and so on but even so just be sat on her is such a wonderful feeling :) Peace out guys :)
11:18
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