Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Breakthroughs and Fun!!!

Renegade caught me tonight when I went out to get him from the pasture but while I was just scratching him he took off!! The thing was, it seemed a playful thing because he stopped, turned around, and looked at me and when he did, I lightly slapped the ground with my cs and string and he came trotting to me and nickered when he got to me. It was as if he was laughing and saying “game on”!! I scratched him a bit more then softly asked for his head to halter him; he turned his head so softly to me and actually sought the halter!!

We went to the play pen as I had a plan for liberty and we had a nice, fun time. I did my pre-liberty checks online and everything was going very well – Renegade was light and responsive! I took the halter off and asked for a few hq yields to see how we were. All was good so went to playing with circles with an obstacle at trot and canter and some COD’s. The circles with obstacles was great, Renegade even jumped at the canter without breaking gait; COD’s were good when he was traveling to the left, difficult for him when traveling to the right. I slowed way down going to the right and asked him in each time he looked at me rather than push through the pressure. A few of those and he started looking for me when going to the right. As soon as he did that, I asked him in (he came at a fast walk) and stopped.

Also had a huge breakthrough with sideways over a barrel AT LIBERTY!! Renegade had been having trouble with the squeeze/sideways over the barrel (it’s a pretty tight fit for the little guy – he’s got to be right on for the barrel to fit under him and between his legs!!). I tried sending him sideways away from me over the barrel and it was difficult so I tried drawing him sideways towards me (he loves sideways towards me!!) over the barrel and it worked; Renegade did it perfectly!! Then, interestingly he offered to do sideways away. I think he finally understands and is comfortable with the barrel in different zones!! Wahooooooooooooooooooooo!!!

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