"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! :)

TWH show!

I just got back from a TWH show. My mom was practically foaming at the mouth, lol. The horses were just gorgeous!! Anyways, we took a bunch of pictures, so have a look!!

[caption id="attachment_71" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="Very pretty black walker!!"][/caption]



[caption id="attachment_73" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="Winner!!"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_75" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="Cute champagne yearling parking out"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_77" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="The yearling again"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_78" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="Western Walker"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_80" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="Another western walker parking out"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_81" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="Horse head"][/caption]

SMART smart smart . . .

I had another session with Arruba yesterday. I'm very excited. Things went really well this time!! At the beginning she was a tad RB, but I backed her up a bit and she got loads better! She never got away from me either!!! Actually, I just prevented it in the first place. I never did circling game, I only worked on games 1-4. Also, I realized that in order for her to run away, she had to take her head way over to the other side and then start going. So, I never allowed her to turn her head where she needed it to be!!!

And I never realized just how smart that horse is!!! Holy cow!! Friendly game she aced, it's kind of funny actually, because I can slap the ground with the rope while she just stands harder than I can with Dancer! I also worked on porcupine game a lot. She usually gets around phase 2/3 still, but she's getting better!! Driving game was nice on the hindquarters, I actually had to up the pressure on phase 4, because I realized that my pressure was more like phase 3. Once I did that, she learned very quickly what I wanted. Her yo-yo game is fantastic (in my opinion) from just 2 sessions. Like the title says, she learns amazingly quick! It'll be interesting to keep her entertained.

Undermined by a YEARLING!!!

I decided to play with Ruby for a little while yesterday. "Oh boy," was that interesting!! Ruby was in the pasture with the other horses at the same time I played with her (for lack of a round pen, man I need one of those!!!). She aces Level 1 friendly game, so that's not a big deal. Porcupine with the hindquarters was pretty good for the first session, but the forehand was kind of difficult. I didn't do the driving game, because the porcupine game needs work first. Mainly I focused on the yo-yo game, because Ruby likes to run people over. I had to go to phase 4 a couple of times and she just stood there (tells you something, huh?!? lol) even as I created a ton of commotion. I considered switching to a different strategy for phase 4, but she started to get it. So, she backs up pretty nice now.

But now, here's my dilemma. Ruby kept wanting to walk away, so I decided I'd send her out on a circle. It took phase 4, and she started trotting around. She didn't circle around me, though. Either she would take a couple steps and stop, which is alright (just resend!) or she'll decide to start trotting away (the normal one). So eventually, she reaches the end of the rope (22'), and I start walking after her. I can't yo-yo, because the rope is taut; I didn't work on driving game (oops); and I can't bend her neck towards me, because the rope will either be between her 2 front legs or on the other side of her neck. So, she got away from me twice (and got the other horses all worked up, it took me at least 5 minutes to catch her once), because those things happened.

I realize now that I set us up for disaster by not preparing properly (WAY smaller pen, better games 1-4), so I think I'll chalk up this session to a learning experience. Though, I still anticipate trouble with the circling game, because she gets the rope caught between her legs a lot which really reduces how much I can control her. I also don't really know how to get her to actually circle and not run away. All in all, I suppose Ruby has a lot to teach me.