LAYING DOWN, STAYING DOWN, AND CHANGING HIS MIND

Played with Renegade this evening and had fun. We did the weave online from 22′. At first, Renegade wanted to create his own game but I slowed everything down, got precise, and didn’t let him be “wrong for long”. Three times through the pattern and he was looking where he was going and looking to me for direction!!


Played the circling game online and am starting to get some upward and downward transitions with phase 1 or 2 and am pleased with that. Played a bit of circling at liberty and got some nice circles at trot and canter. For a change, Renegade was looking inside the circle and not outside. I also didn’t have to have as much energy going in my body for him to maintain the canter. I was experimenting with just how little energy I can use to cause him to maintain the canter; it seems we’re refining it a bit.

The best part came after our play session. I followed our usual routine of me sitting down on the ground for some UDT with Renegade. Tonight it took very little time for him to lay down to roll and he was very close to me. He laid down very softly and rolled a bit then righted himself but didn’t go to get up right away. I was close enough to rub his knees with my hands and he softly smelled them. I then gave him part of a cookie I just happened to have handy and he stayed down to eat it. When he went to get up, I offered him another piece of cookie and he changed his mind about. He was about 1/3 of the way up and decided to lay back down for the cookie and stayed down while he ate it. WHOOT, WHOOT!!