Wow!
What a great night! As you can see from the pictures, Shyloh was amazing again! And. . .no spooks tonight!
We worked on a labyrinth with the poles. I got the idea from here. I want to try as many of these exercises with Shy as I can to boost her confidence. We went forward through the labyrinth both ways. Then, I up'd the ante and I had Shy go backwards. I didn't think that she would do it, but she did! Shy proved me wrong, once again. Then I rearranged the poles into a different formation. We worked on going through them both ways again. Then i put two poles across and Shy walked over them without a problem! She did not even balk at them or stop to sniff them. And they were slightly raised off of the ground. A few times she hit the poles with her back legs (I think she was being lazy and not picking her feet up high enough) and rolled the poles a little, but she did not care. Like I said, no spooks tonight! As the last part of our exercises today, I removed the poles across, and we walked backwards through the path. Again, perfection! Shy did not give me any trouble!
The barn was so quiet and peaceful tonight. The only problem was the flies! They were everywhere! Poor Shyloh was covered with flies. I had to spray her twice, but I am pretty sure that the flies will still bother her. I even sprayed Chick down. He was having a rough time with the flies. Each season has its pros and cons. Winter=no bugs but cold, summer=no snow but bugs!
Thank you for stopping by and commenting!
ReplyDeleteI love leading exercises like this - they really help to build the horse's and handler's attentiveness to one another. There are a set of them on my sidebar "Working Towards Softness" - I do others including a keyhole.
My plans are to try the keyhole when I go to the barn today. And I am going to check out the exercises on your blog. Thanks!
ReplyDeletePlease feel free to link to anything you'd like on my blog - I'm glad you're finding some things there that are useful.
ReplyDeleteI love the series of pictures. You and your horse look like you all are having a lot of fun with the poles. We finally bought some poles this summer (and also created a small obstacle course). These types of exercises are so helpful for developing communication with a horse. People don't give enough credit to groundwork. I also love Kate's blog--I've learned quite a few useful things by reading her blog.
ReplyDeletecheers,
Mary
http://stalecheerios.com/blog
Mary,
ReplyDeleteThat is true that people do not give enough credit to groundwork, especially when it is the foundation of all work with a horse! I love doing groundwork and exercises like this. I plan on stopping by your blog later tonight to check it out!