Sweet Success

I played with Dancer last night. She actually ran to me, too. I was shocked, because I thought she'd hate me (our session 2 days ago didn't go very well)! So that's exciting.

Let's see, we started out doing some jumping. I actually got her to jump over a barrel twice! Though, she went a little RBE, but that was over quick. I arranged the barrels in a 'L' pattern and we played with that a little bit. And I realized how sensitive Dancer is to the Yo-yo game. She was consistently backing off of Phase 1 which is pretty good for her!

Then, I decided to try some trailer loading, since Dancer needs a tiny bit more help with that. She did really good!! After a while, I got it so that she was actually confident to load all the way in and come out. So, that was really good! Plus, she was offering to go in when I hadn't asked. Eventually, I had to ask her to circle, because she wouldn't let me close the trailer up!! Lol.

After that I took her outside to eat some grass. She had a RBE episode. Since I only had a 12' rope on her, I had her run back and forth in a half-circle while I had my back to a fence. I tried to back her up a little after and she reared up. Interesting, because I thought when horses go RBE, you're supposed to back them up to something (or put their nose/foot on something)?

Next, I took her back in the pasture and tried some porcupine on FQ and Sideways. She still doesn't really understand Sideways: she'll move her HQ, but she doesn't move her FQ yet. But she'll get there! Also, I got her to pivot on her FQ turn. I took her halter off at that, because her FQ are like a chair that weighs 2 tons!

"Quick, shut the gate!!"

Luckily, not!! I just felt like naming this post after one of Pat's trailer loading don'ts. My neighbors borrowed a trailer for the week and so decided to try loading their horses. So, Ruby, Charlie, and Sheba had an interesting day today. By the way, I've never talked about Sheba before, because I don't play with her much. She's a bay 25 year old LBI Quarter Horse who hasn't been in a trailer in 8 years. Well, Ruby had never seen a trailer before. My friend Miranda had Ruby, I had Sheba and Miranda's mom Bev had Charlie. Charlie was the most willing to load, so we loaded him up first. Ruby got hyped up! She wasn't even near the trailer, and she started doing a passage. I'll admit, she looked amazing (her tail was up the highest I've ever seen it, too), but I felt bad for Miranda. She was trying to restrain her and Ruby got away. But she ran right to Sheba, so no big deal.

Well, when Ruby went in the trailer, Bev tried bribing her. Ruby went in part way for the food, yet she was extremely unconfident. Talk about RBE!! And due to contrast in methods (Bev and Miranda are anti-Parelli), I'm no longer allowed to use Phase 4 with their horses. So, all I can do is stand by and watch. Anyways, we got Ruby to go in halfway, but she won't move her hind feet yet. She's thought about it, though. So, that's great for Ruby's first time!

I also tried loading Sheba in. She was sweating up a storm! The most I got her to go in was about halfway. Sheba was really unconfident, too. She kept trying to hide behind the side of the trailer. Also, she kept pulling back on the rope. But boy was Sheba thinking! I think she dug a hole halfway to China. So, it was quite easy to pick up Sheba's thinking pattern: pawing. Well, she tried a lot one time, so I decided that that was a good note to quit on. I took her away and she wouldn't eat any grass. I think she was too RBE to care, if that's possible. I'm happy with how I handled her RBEness. She wanted to walk fast, so instead of holding her back, I had her hindquarters in a few circles, and then forehand and then had her squeeze between a post and she calmed down. It was difficult on such a short rope, but I managed! :)