I have some amazing news: After 2.5 YEARS of being with Moose, I think we're finally starting to get it!!
Absolutely awesome day today with Moose!! Just outstanding. Went out and haltered him, and started playing with picking up his feet. We've been doing this recently, so this'll be about our 3-5th time doing it, not quite sure which, but anyways it was a lot better. Yesterday I just did undemanding time, but the day before I had to get really firm about Moose picking up his left front foot. Well, today he responded to almost all of his feet off phase 1 with my hand, and then just I might've had to tap him with my boot, but there was no other hand pressure. Phase 2 on one foot, but that was his left front, and even with that said he did exceptionally better than before. It took persistence, but not nearly as high of phases and he picked that foot up. His back feet he's always been pretty good about.
So, after that I was just getting ready to start playing with his FH yield when I was interrupted. A family member ran the phone out to me. Good news! I have a job!! :) So that was awesome news!
Then, I continued playing with Moose and started our FH yields. My goal is to get it to where we can do a 360 off phase 1 with the CS in the Driving Game. To the right I was getting some awesome yields, about 180 degrees with him keeping his feet still which were terrific, so I tried to the left. It was still not bad, but I need to get better timing for next time so he can actually do what I wanted. He ended up just walking forward at one point, but we ended with a nice 2 steps, and I could get 2 steps regularly by the end of it.
From there, we went to the next step in the plan which was to get him yielding to lateral flexion nice on the ground. He does it perfectly!! Surprise surprise! He's terrible at it under saddle but on the ground he's perfect, albeit a little mouthy.
Then, I decided to start some Touch It. My goal is to get it so we can play Touch It from 22' away as that will definitely show respect, and it is another option instead of just doing mindless circles!
I've come to realize through the Parelli website that the circling game shows respect, and that I wasn't giving Moose his fair share of responsibility in the Circling Game. Today there was a point when I wanted Moose to go touch a tree, so I sent him, but he got too far ahead of me. So, I had him around instead. He kind of paused after I sent him though, like "you're sure?" and I was like oh yeah, I said circle bud, and pointed and flicked him with the CS. That really got him licking and chewing, because I was actually serious with my plan.
Anyways, it went pretty well. He's got quite the Stick to me game ingrained in his head, so he thinks he can't be further than 5-7 feet away from me unless he's circling, so we have some playing to go.
Overall, absolutely spectacular day! Will post with my 'official' plan soon.
