Today started when I walked into George's paddock, left the door wide open. He walked up to me let me scratch him on his left side, then I went to his right side, and he played approach and retreat with me. He really wasn't all that confident with me on that side in Zone 3/4, but he was really itchy! He backed up until he was confortable, then moved forwards again, then moved back, then forwards, inching his way until he was okay with me scratching him while standing next to his hip. So cute!
I went and grabbed the halter, 22 foot line and my carrot stick. He waited at the open door for me to come back and tilted his nose and bent his neck towards me for me to put the halter on. Then we walked calmly and cooly out to the arena. (In case at this point if you are wondering, there is a 30 foot round pen, but the walls are 7 feet tall and plywood and I don't wanna go in!). Now, my game plan for the day was to play all 7 games, but we didn't quite get there.
When we got to the arena, someone had taken two barrels, layed them on their sides, and layed some poles over and around them to make cavelletis(sp?) and jumps. We stopped about 30 feet away because he just could not move his feet any closer to them! We played approach and retreat until we were at about 22 feet, then I went and sat on one of the barrels. Well, if mom is over there, then it can't hurt me! He walked right up and started scratching himself on the barrel. He gummed the poles, walked over the ones on the ground. I have to constantly remind myself that nearly everything is a new experience for him. The only places he's ever been in his life are his small stall/paddock, the trainers, the track, and back to his stall for recoup. One the bright side, he really appears to be loving learning about new things.
Squeezing between the scary jump and the pole.
Scratching himself on the once-scary jump.
Contemplating the easiest way to suck down his apple slice.
Hmmmm....How Interesting Moment: When squeezing over poles, the first three feet are fine, but the right hind always gets stuck!
We played lots and lots of friendly, I can now swing the carrot stick and string over my head without an explosion, can toss it over his back rub him all over, and he seems to be enjoying it.
Then we played the porcupine game. Very easy to move the head, move the back, move backwards, front end took some effort. Same with the driving game. Phase 4 to move the forequarters, Phase 2 for the hind. I'm doing my best to be absolutely patient with him, reminding myself that no one has ever taught him to engage witha person, or release from pressure of any kind. Still, he has never offered to kick me. We started fine tuning our yo-yo game, but he has to be paying attention to me for a Phase 1 Yo-Yo, and it's hard to catch his attention! Sometimes, especially when he is right brain I've noticed, I have to do something outrageous or Phase 4 to get his attention, then he sees me and will do it Phase 1. Hmmm.
At this point in time, I see a group of people headed to the arena. Two people riding, three people on the ground, and six dogs. I moved over to the side of the arena, and we just sat and waited. I wanted to see if he could be calm with the excitement, and if not then we could go elsewhere. When they approached I told them if we were making them uncomfortable, just let us know. They said no, not a problem! So I just sat and watched while George rooted through the sand like a piggie looking for foodstuffs.
One of the riders was on a beautiful Morgan and was trying to do dressage with him. The other lady was on an arab and just working on bending manuevers. I had met both these gals last week whilst George was the kite and my 22-line the string. He was a perfect gentleman today though. At one point in time, the gal riding the Morgan asked for a canter, which the horse was not ready for. He was tossing his head around at the trot; but, when she asked for the canter he became scared, frustrated and rushed. He took off. George was about 6 feet from me and I turned to him contemplating if there should or shouldn't be more space between him and I at that point in time. He looked at me, looked at the horse, looked at me, looked at the horse, looked at me. *paw* *paw* lay down, roll* Stood up, looked at me, looked at the horse, repeat.
Cue to me grinning like an idiot!
:) :) :)
After she had her horse under control, Morgangirl decided to end her session and go get a different horse. With her left two people and the dogs. Not before one of the dogs went for George's nose. He lept straight up in the air and mid air, I popped him with the leadsnap, and he hit the ground, looked at me, lowered his head and relaxed. I wasn't happy that his first experience with dogs involved one trying to bite his nose, but I'm glad because it could've been SOOO much worse.
The gal riding the Arab came up to me and we started talking, she was telling me how impressed she was the George was that calm with the Morgan taking off and what a difference he's made in a week! While we were chatting about our horses and our background, George stepped onto/over the 22-foot rope and before I could suck in a breath the line was wrapped around three of his legs and he was freaking out. I could see he was about to take off and hurt himself, so I ran towards him with purpose, and he responded by backing up with purpose. We backed up about 50 feet before he started to think. I stopped, he stopped, lowered his head, blew and licked his lips. I unwrapped his rope from his legs, then walked back over to my conversation, said sorry for the interruption, and continued the convo while playing friendly with the rope around his legs, leading by the legs and backing by them. Then we all decided to call it a day, she smiled at me and said, "You're very lucky to have a horse like that. I can tell just by looking at him what a relationship you have, he just wants so badly to make you happy." Holy Jeepers it took me two years to get a compliment like that with my last horse!
All-in-all, It was a wonderful day. I truly fall more in love with George every time I play with him. He's just so cool! I'm so bummed to have to work all week and already can't wait until next weekend. I just adore him and I can't wait to see where our next play session will lead. I'd like to think that Parelli saying, "If your horse is recreation for you, can you be recreation for your horse?" rings true here. George deffinetly seems to be having a good time too. I would, however, like to move him out to a larger paddock, he needs more room to move! The one he is in now is much bigger than his old one, but...I don't know it's just not enough!
*Interesting Note for Today* George would NOT eat unless I was near him. I sat with him to finish his breakfast, he wouldn't eat his grain until I was there. He took one apple slice from me (and I brought two bags full!) and that was that. I hope that he eats while I'm at work this week! I'm not really sure what this means though...
I'm just going to through this one out there: I have decided I will not be riding George until we can do w/t/c transitions at the circling game just by using my energy. If he can't listen to my body on the ground there is no way he will pay attention to it in the saddle! This may seem extreme to some people but given George's background I think it's more than fair. I also don't think it will take more than a month from now...but I'll put it on my "eventually" list.
Sounds like so much fun! I am really excited for you and can't wait to follow your progress. Keep posting photos - he's a cutie!!! :)
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