I am so glad that I woke up early and decided to go to the barn. The weather report stated rain rain rain, but a break between 10am and 2pm. I got home from the barn at 11:30 and it was raining. But it was rain free while I was at the barn!
I took Shyloh's tail out of the wrap, brushed it, braided it, then wrapped it back up in pink vet wrap. Too many people thought she was a boy. . .
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| pretty tail |
Then we got to work. Sometimes I wish I did not have a horse who thought for herself so much. It makes everything much more challenging. For example, if we are in an arena coming up on a corner. She sees the wall and knows she doesn't want to walk into it, so she makes the decision to turn. I might want to to get closer to the wall before I ask for the turn and then we have an argument on our hands. Or when she decides it is time for her to be done working. Or she wants to go back to the herd and I have to fight her. Or today, when I got the shafts out. Shy was completely fine with them, but didn't want to be touch. There was no scary eyes or anything, just stepping away. But after her harness was on and I put the shafts in the tugs, she had no problem with it.
And Shy tends to use her brain when she gets more comfortable with what we are doing. Like now. . .she is quite comfortable with pretty much any type of line driving I throw at her. Lately, she has been having ants in her pony pants! She won't stand! When we were dragging things, she would turn. Now that I added the shafts, she fans left and right. Shy wants to go go go!
Is she that excited to be working. . .probably not. . .What is her deal?
Shy used to stop and stand like a champ. I could stop and talk to people for 10-15 minutes and she would stand perfectly, which a leg cocked. What happened to that? And how do I fix it? I am open to suggestions!
We finally got a short stand, but if I have a cart hooked to her, I need to to stop and stand until I tell her to go, not when she wants to go.
And, sassy pony knows exactly what she is doing. When I line drove her back to the outside tack area, told her to whoa and stand, she didn't move a muscle. Argh! We have more work to do. . .Oh, and I used the crop today! Works like a charm!
And, sassy pony knows exactly what she is doing. When I line drove her back to the outside tack area, told her to whoa and stand, she didn't move a muscle. Argh! We have more work to do. . .Oh, and I used the crop today! Works like a charm!
I love how long her tail is getting! It is beautiful!
ReplyDeletePippin had a hard time standing still. I followed Julie Goodnight's method for standing like a statue... and worked in hand with him. I think it helped.
Practice practice practice. Lots of walk halt, walk halt transitions. Starting with halting for 1 second with big praise. Then gradually increase to 5 seconds, then 10 seconds, then 30, a minute etc. Might take some time but it works. She just needs to learn to stand and be patient when YOU want her to, not just because she does it herself.
ReplyDeleteThat's the plan!
DeleteShe's got such a lovely tail. I'd bundle up Mitch and Jet's tails if I could because the mud is just unbearable, and their tails don't look so great. I like them long, but that means they drag in the mud.
ReplyDeleteBut ... we still have flies. (When don't we have flies, lol) so I can't.
What a lot of people do here in the summer is bundle most of the tail up and leave some out for fly swatting.
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