Daily Walks

I didn’t think I had said anything bad about our boy last time, but apparently I was harsher than I meant to be.

We are continuing to take our walks every chance we get. It does him so much good to get out of his comfort zone. I was going to say that he is doing so much better, staying out of my space and not as spooky. Our next walk was nearly perfect. But yesterdays not as much. We go down the driveway through the puddles and mud. His biggest problem is whirling to face the barn every time we stop.

I ask him to move his hindquarters back where they belong and we stand for a moment before continuing. But it doesn’t always just work. Often the yielding of hindquarters is very stressful and we swing the other way and go in circles and he can get very upset. I try to keep at it very calmly until he settles and will stand.

Walks are a perfect time to work on voice commands, mostly whoa and walk up, he is picking them up quickly. He’s moving away from pressure very nicely and I’ve worked a couple of times on giving to the bit. He is flexing softly both ways. Yesterday I got my blanket out and sacked him out a little, it didn’t bother him to much. It’s my blanket I use regularly so I’m not willing to flop it down on the ground beneath him like I usually would, it’s still muddy out here. I’m going to have to find something else to use.

With a little help I cleaned out the tree branches from the round pen. Worked him in there today, a quick “hey, pay attention to me not the other horses”, showing him the basic idea of it, sort of lesson. I want to desensitize him more and he’s almost ready to saddle. Which brings us back to my everyday using saddle that, like my blanket, I do like to be careful with, not the old broken down saddle that I used to flop around on colts.  This one is a bit heavier too. Oh well I’ll figure something out, it will make me twice as careful in my preparation.

• ← A Walk in the Park
• Playing With Ponies →