Riding With The Goblin
We went for a ride this weekend!
First time I’ve been able to get The Goblin Child on a horse in a very long time. Honestly she didn’t want to get on this time. I think I lost my positive reinforcement training cred by forcing her to get on. With her on I left her to sit by the swing set and got Rusty ready to go.
By the time I got done she was perfectly happy and ready to go ride.
We walked around the arena and she was happy with it. I started out a little ways, giving her time to say no, she was good with it so we kept going. Around the yard and she was still happy so we kept going. I asked if she wanted to go back, she said no so we kept going. We had to circle back eventually, at the house I asked if she was ready to get off, she said no, so we kept going. Up the driveway, down the driveway, we kept going.
Back in the arena she asked when she got to get off.
Whenever you want! I jumped off immediately and helped her down. I didn’t give up nn positive reinforcement completely after all!
Sometimes it can be better to face fears than to let them fester. She loved our ride, hopefully we can do it again this weekend.
After taking off Rusty’s saddle he wandered off. I heard some banging and looked around the corner. Rusty had gone to visit our refrigerator. Apparently he likes that trick.
