June 29, 2010

After a traveling weekend (to the Columbus Ohio PARELLI event!!!), I got to sneak in a couple of hours with Sonny this morning. He came to me in the pasture, but I was within 20 ft of him before he noticed me. But, he did come willingly to me. We played mostly inside, last session of 7 on 4 feet on Pedestal !! I tried figure 8 at the trot, and he gave me a half way decent one, and several not so decent tries,,but I marked it as teaching session #1. Weave at walk/trot is going nicely-this was session #3 ,and it's improving, getting quite nice, I can see that he's getting the pattern of it. He gets the figure 8 pattern at the walk really well, but it hasnt' clicked with him on the trot. how interesting.
Today was session #3 on level 2 trailer patterns. I also asked him in, and got all 4 feet, but he was skeptical and didnt stay in long. I ended after a nice 2 feet in with calm attitude,,,lots of praise and called that task quits for the day.
We did bounce ball on horse, he's calm on the right side,and a tad skeptical on the left, but tolerates it with only minimal drifting.
We played some on the 45 ft line , I was super clutzy with it today, and I had difficulty getting him to make a circle, he made half or quarter attempts, then would change direction on his on. I did get a few complete circles, and did get the canter a couple of times, sometimes snitty, sometimes calm.
Completed session #3 on hold up a foot with ss.
Worked on change of direction at trot =this was teaching session #4, he's getting better, no arguing today, he's getting the idea,,,still have to wiggle the rope, or wiggle string for a slight slow down first when he's going to the right.
He pushed the ball several feet with his nose, gotta work on with his chest, I guess.
I seem to be always too tired to do obstacles, just seems like too much thinking involved. Maybe I need to plot a course ahead of time , and do that first.
Of note, on the 4 feet on pedestal, I got it from a further distance, about 4-5 feet away, which isnt much, but is a change,,usually I'm right at the pedestal.
He won't send thru the shower curtain, but will lead thru.
I've been working without my check list, just looking at it and checking after the session. I need to USE it DURING the session. duh, Fay.

Expect a lot, accept a little, reward often.
I inadvertantly got into a very predatory stance, crouching as turning to ask for a change of direction, can't figure out why, but I leaned toward him and it really freaked him out for a few seconds, I felt like a JERK. When he reacted-tossed his head and kicked-I immediately realized what I'd done, and couldn't blame him for seeing me as a predator, big time, but I also felt that I had to send a coil to let him know the kicking is NOT EVER acceptable. It smoothed over very quickly, he calmed and I asked him in for scratches and reassurance, then all was well for the rest of the session. He took off in a hard canter once on the 45' line, but no buck or kick.
I watched L4 liberty today, and I'm confused about change of direction. Pat shows and says to turn with the horse for change of direction, but the other dvd in the vault shows him turning against the horse for a change of direction. Maybe it doesnt matter which way you turn, as long as it gives the horse the message that something (a cue) is coming. ????
Anyhow, I'm inspired to have another libery session with Sonny and see how much of L4 we can do, I think most. However, also confusing , the pattern dvd shows a L2 for liberty, and contains tasks in L3 that arent taught till L4 in the new levels. I wish they'd make sure the levels and the patterns (also task lists) all continually match, it's confusing and would be (is somewhat) frustrating except that I plan to complete all 4 levels anyway, so I want to do/learn it all anyhow.
Be patiently persistent in the proper position.

Fay