Saturday, March 17, 2012

Updates

Wednesday I went to the barn, and worked with Gwen using the Carrot Stick. We did pretty good. She had no problems with it touching her all over, or the string zipping over her head or around her legs, etc. She took it all in stride. She got a little confused when I started "poking" her with it, to yield her hind quarter, but only in the sense that she thought she was meant to stand still, not move away from the pressure. But we got that sorted. Unfortunately, she was really not concentrating at all. Her attention was definitely outside the round pen. The weather was kinda nasty, and the wind was really shaking the trees, so she kept tensing up and looking out to the tree tops. We wrapped it up after some backing, and called it a day.

Thursday, I had big plans. I was going to really concentrate on forehand yields, as those are currently our weakest. However, my phone had other ideas. It decided to do weird things like lock up and stop working. So instead of going to the barn, I spent the evening after work getting it fixed. I'm happy to say that it is all better now, and the solution was simple, and did not involve losing all of my pictures, etc.  Friday was a late work day, so I wasn't able to get to the barn until today, Saturday!

It was threatening to rain all afternoon, but I pulled Gwen out, gave her a good brushing, and headed to the round pen. Since I want to get really good at the porcupine game with her, I left the carrot stick behind, and just worked with my fingers. Practiced on her hindquarters first, as she's really good about yielding those. So good, that often I don't need to touch her but once, and then she just goes off my hand lifting. Her forequarters, not so much. I stood quietly by her shoulder and "poked" with all my fingers lightly. If she thought about moving, or shifted a little, I kept the pressure light, but if she didn't seem to pay attention, I'd gradually increase. I could tell she was thinking about it, but wasn't really sure what to do. She did a lot of backing up instead of moving her shoulder over, but I did get a good one or two steps sideways toward the end. Throughout, she'd kinda blow out, and drop her head, and I could tell she was really thinking about what I was trying to ask her, but wasn't sure what to do. Something we'll definitely need to work on. I ended with backing her up off the halter, since it's something she knows and will do really well, so we ended on a very positive note :)  I'm very proud of her. I barely had to touch the lead and she'd back up without resistance.

Tomorrow's my "day off" from the barn, but I'm super excited to work more with yielding her forequarters. Can't wait till Monday!

Grooming time!
J

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