Surprise!!!

Well, I went to the barn yesterday looking forward to working with my Right Brain Introvert, Brandy. She is an older quarter horse mare that is very challenging! Tom decided he'd go to the barn with me & mow Decker's pasture to keep the weeds suppressed while I played with the horses. So I put Decker in the round pen while I played with Brandy.

I played with Brandy for about 30 minutes. I was just checking her out, b/c I have only played the friendly game with her before. She did really well with the friendly and porcupine game. I think I'll have to find better ways to engage her for the driving, squeeze and yo-yo games. Over all though, she was great!

So now that Decker has been in the round pen for 30 minutes, he is all sweaty from running around and playing! The boy sure can buck! :) He is fun to watch...scary to think how athletic he is though! Well I went to get him out of the round pen, so I could feed everyone for the night. He frisked me as usual at the gate, so I played the yo-yo game to back him out of my bubble. He is starting to be able to yo-yo at liberty now! I'm so proud!!! :) Well I let him chew on everything as usual and put the halter in his mouth like a bit to make it playful. He then excepted the halter very well & wanted to play more...so I used that! :)

I backed him up and drove him towards a cone in the round pen. He stood there and didn't do anything. I used my carrot stick & string to push his neck over towards it. He squealed & shook his head, b/c he is so dominant. He got over it though & did what I asked. He picked it up with his mouth as usual & stomped all over it! Better the cone than me! :) He loves checking things out and playing with everything! We then played the touch it game with barrels and cones. I drove him to each object and stopped him so he could check things out. He is getting much better at this game! I can see the wheels turning when I ask him to do something. If I get boring...he gets mischievous!!! Once he got the touch it game, I decided to yo-yo him out of the round pen & ask for some more! I played the driving game to his pasture and then asked him to yo-yo backwards into his stall. He got kind of nervous about the small opening to the stall, so I opened the gate more, so he could feel better about it. The backing and turning at the same time was hard, so I backed him through a gate and then drove him into his stall. This felt like me asking him into the horse trailer. He did it perfectly! I am so happy that we are finally communicating!!! :) Love him! It is surprising what passive persistence will do with a horse! :)


Keep it Natural,
Brooke