Monday, July 18, 2011

We're Having Fun Now!!

Entered the pasture, sat on the log and waited for Renegade to approach me. I closed my eyes, pictured him coming to me, and he moseyed his way over. It took only about 3 minutes for him to do this. I haltered him while sitting down and with his permission.


Played tonight with driving from zones 4 & 5 - started with zone 3 and was able to quickly move to zones 4 & 5. Renegade stayed on the rail with minimal corrections. Decided to up the ante and ask for the trot from zone 5 and we did 5 strides then stopped softly, smoothly, and straight!! Tried it two more times and did great - 5 strides the second time and 10 strides the third time, both with nice, soft stops with me bringing my energy down and lifting the rope slightly.

Played with COD in the circling game and decided to only have Renegade do 1/2 circles before I asked for the COD and it worked beautifully. I slowed everything down, concentrating on getting a nice, soft turn and not giving Renegade anything to brace against. I also concentrated on not letting him come in too close during the COD. The strategy was successful; Renegade was making nice, soft turns and moving out smartly after the turn and stayed out of my space. I only tagged him if he came in too close and it was more of a provocative tag...like oh, oh, gotcha...you were too close. On the last COD, Renegade began licking and chewing then nickering. I think he got the game!!

I've been having problems with resistance from Renegade when attempting to lead him by the ear so tonight I tried it by putting the savvy string around his ears and leading more by a suggestion and suprise, suprise...he lead very nicely. I think when I was using my hand, I was being too direct line and using too much pressure. :-( Ack...but at least I figured it out now and we can progress from here. :-)

Back up by the tail at liberty was fun. Renegade backed straight with very light pressure on the hairs of his tail, more of a suggestion really. I did need to get him started with a light wave of the cs, again more of a suggestion...a lift it.

Played with touch it with zones 1, 3, and 5. Renegade did well with zones 1 and 3 and was much better about zone 5. He's gaining more confidence about backing straight now without veering off to the sides rather than straight. I yo'd him back and when he'd get crooked, I'd bring him forward and start again. Had to repeat that about 5 times and he finally backed up straight. I quit on that note!!

Before unhaltering tonight I played with Renegades face and mouth as he has opposition reflex about this. I played until I got acceptance and softness. I even was able to massage the inside of his lower lip and his lower gums. I massaged softly and slowly until he relaxed and stopped moving his mouth then quit. He was quite intrigued by all that and looked interested but soft when I quit. I unhaltered again while sitting on the log. Renegade was willing, soft, and stayed with me for some scratches.

He was quite funny and decided to go munch on some grass so he left at a trot, went about 50' away, took a few bites, then came trotting back to me nickering. I think he still wanted to play cause he started sidepassing around me, then offered a close in circle. When I started laughing, he nickered, trotted off about 50', took another few bites of grass, then came trotting back again. I just had to giggle, he was too funny!!

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