Seven Games

Yesterday, for the first time, Gwen and I played all seven games online. It was amazing! I was so pleased to find out that our successful rope-wiggle yo-yo was, in fact, a real thing and not just a fluke or something I'd dreamed up. It might seem silly, but watching her back away from me as I wiggle my finger/rope is something I will never get tired of. From the beginning it was our "hardest" game, and for a few days I was absolutely convinced we wouldn't get it. I know that our success is due to the fact that I made sure to slow down and practice the very basic games, like Porcupine.

We're even doing really good forehand yielding, and she's getting better each time. She definitely has a preference for her left-side. When I'm standing on her left, she just seems to do better. It doesn't surprise me, because I feel more comfortable and manipulating the rope and carrot-stick are much easier for me from that side. It's something I've definitely got to work on, because I know if I don't make an effort to practice from the right, my tendency will be to work from the left, simply because working on the right is "hard" for me. And I'm a bit LBI when it comes to that sort of thing. I don't like to work ;)

Our Touch-it is getting really good. Things that are "tall", like upright barrels and jump-standards, are easy for her. She kinda gets lost when I direct her to things on the ground (like cones, or "fallen over" barrels) and she has a tendency to step over/around rather than clue in to the fact that I want her to touch it. We'll definitely work on it though.

We did the circling game at a trot yesterday, both ways. She really wants to move away from me when she's on the half-circle closest to the pasture (no surprise there), and she has a habit of hesitating/stopping when she's in front of me. I think it's anticipation, or uncertainty about what I want her to do, and I have a habit of looking up at her when she comes around, so I think I'm going to experiment with keeping my eyes on the ground as she circles and see if that helps her.

Yesterday was the first time we played the Sideways game, for two reasons. 1) We can't play this one in the round pen. And 2) I was kinda dreading it, because I thought it might be one of the more difficult games for us. Boy was I wrong about that! Her sideways just might be her best game yet! I was very impressed. She caught on extremely quickly. I decided to use her herd-bound buddies to help me out, and made sure our first attempt was a sideways toward the pasture. We had a bit of a wobble in the beginning, as she tried to figure out if I wanted her to lead the way, or back up, but she caught on pretty quickly that she was supposed to move shoulders/hind at the same time. And then we flew! Down the rail to the pasture, then a quick "squeeze" and a hindquarter yield to get her nose on the rail to go back the other direction (which was just as good) and then a bit of yo-yo for good measure.

She was fantastic! Only had two or three moments when she got a bit tense and concerned. For the most part, she's really listening and watching me, trying to figure out what I want and then doing it. What a fantastic horse! I feel so lucky :) I love my girl!

J