I'm separating Phebes from the herd, and going back for the perpetual remedial training.
This morning we have done: longe line, horse ballet, spooky walmart bag, off line control, load in the horse trailer, follow me, watch my feet, the squeeze game, respect my space, side pass around the pen clockwise, side pass around the pen counter clockwise, under saddle, vertical flexion, lateral flexion, whoa dammit! Back up back up back up, side pass to the right, side pass to the left, walk, trot, canter and try to buck me off, back to remedial training some more. She is in the round pen with a flake of hay, and a bucket of water. After lunch we will start again. I may not yet be a limited distance rider, but I definitely seem to have "endurance". ~E.G.
You know what I like to do here to get our Arabs used to plastic Wally bags? I tie many of them along the fence (especially where the horses like to hang out looking for food), so they flap in the wind. That way they get used to seeing them all the time.
ReplyDeleteLuckily, my Thoroughbred doesn't spook at things. In fact, when he sees plastic bags hanging on bushes and flapping in the wind, he goes to check them out and see if there are carrots in them!
I do that too! The only problem is that my "brave" horses that check out bags, streamers and mylar balloons take them down or pull them apart. I pick up trash along the trail like all of the above items, take them home and put them up. That way the trail gets cleaner and there's often something new and alarming.
ReplyDeleteClicker training is great to get them to touch scary objects.