Monday, October 11, 2010

America and Li"Bert"y are STARS!!!

Tonight's play plan involved America and Bert, Captain and Renegade had the day off and had grazing time together in another pasture. I haltered America and left the pasture leaving Bert alone. This was part of my plan tonight as Bert tends to get emotional when America leaves and I want to get him used to being alone or with Captain and Renegade; I want to be able to start taking America to play days soon and I don't want Bert to be upset about it.

Tonight was the third night of trailer loading with America and she was fantastic!! The first two tries, she was only confident enough to put three feet in the trailer but on the third and forth tries, she put all 4 feet in the trailer. She was much more confident about it tonight although she didn't stay long she didn't want to leave in a hurry like the last two nights. All in all we spent maybe 20" practicing and then enjoyed some grazing time on the way back to the pasture. I turned America out and haltered Bert.

The session with Bert consisted of liberty in the round pen. He is super sensitive and in general, the beginning of our sessions are quite exhuberent. I didn't try to stop him, I just put him out on a circle and "helped" him go a bit. He decided fairly quickly to slow down into a relaxed trot, then he started looking to me for direction. It took about 8 circles to the right and 8 to the left before he started to settle in. When he was looking more relaxed, I invited him in and we had a nice rub and scratch fest. He was connected to me so I decided to play a bit of stick to me at a walk. It was fabulous!!  Bert stayed with me and we did some turns to the left and right. I decided to quit while things were going so well; I haltered Bert, took him back to the pasture, turned him loose and he decided to stay with me!!!

Both America and Bert were STARS tonight; they both tried so hard...America in her LBI way and having to think and take her time and Bert in his extroverted way being exhuberent with "happy feet" then settling in to a nice relaxed trot. So different, but both so much fun!! I love my horses!!!!!!!

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