First off, the Midwest Horse Fair!! Well, had a good time. I went on Saturday with a few friends. I caught the end of the Mustang Challenge. I hope to see more of that next year! It was very interesting to see all the different methods used, and how the horses reacted. But for bigger news, I got a saddle! :) It fit the cut-out of Moose's withers that I brought and was within our price range, so it's here. The only thing is that I'm not sure if it's going to fit him. We put it on with no pad underneath, and it really fell forward and pinched his shoulders. But I tried it with a Theraflex I'm borrowing, and it fit a lot nicer once shimmed. So, I think it might work. . . we'll see.
Anyways, I also attended a few clinics. I saw one about trick riding, and that was interesting to see. I also saw Ray Ainsworth, and he was working with a filly that my neighbor's cousin brought up. I was a little disappointed that Parelli wasn't there, because I saw them last year and their demonstration completely blew me away! But it was still a good time.
I played with the horses today at liberty and had a really nice time. I had no plan when I went out there, which is the basis for the title, but ended up doing lots of friendly. I had a noodle, flag, and whip. I was trying to get Bella more desensitized, and to get Moose to allow me to touch him. Having my focus on both horses proved helpful, because then if Moose started going introverted, I just walked away and started desensitizing Bella! But I found out 2 interesting things today. 1) I think Moose's problem with being touched actually is a RB problem, at least with new objects. Because when I touched him with the noodle beyond his face, he jumped forward like the RBI Pat played with in Horsenality segment of the January DVD. Also, I noticed that whenever I actually touched him with the noodle, his eyes got wide. But the moment I took it away, they would relax. 2) Moose taught me a nice lesson today about timing, too. I realized that I was putting more pressure on Moose when he was already unconfident. For example, say I have the flag. I'd let Moose sniff it, and then I slowly move it up -not touching him- by his cheek. He'd lift his head and flick his ears when I reached the threshold, then I'd immediately remove the flag. So, that's not the problem. The thing is once and while, he moves his head to the side to look at something else. For whatever reason, I always thought that then I should make him look at the scary object, so I'd bring it back up by his cheek until he acknowledged it, then remove it again. But in his mind, I was just putting more pressure on him when he got unconfident! So, that was as very nice thing to find out today!
And due to our good day, Moosey actually had draw!! :) I couldn't believe it, because we were at liberty, too. So, there might be hope for our audition after all! Yep, if we can pull it off, I think Moosey and I can pass Level 1. I'm very excited! But hey, I guess the key is just to not have a plan, right?
