YES!!!

I've been repeating my pattern of entering the pasture while the horses are grazing and going to sit on the log. I'm happy to say Renegade is beginning to repeat his pattern of moseying over to see me, generally within 5 minutes or less. Of course I have a cookie to reward such good, positive behavior!!


Again, haltered from a seated position and played a bit with Renegade's mouth and inside his lips while I remained seated. His mouth was much quieter tonight, a lot less tongue and lip action so I checked to make sure he hadn't gone introverted...he hadn't, he was just quiet. I gently massaged his lower gum and he got the softest look on his face and his lip was really relaxed!!

Next was FTR with me in zone 5 nearly at the end of the 22' line. Renegade did a great job at staying on the rail so I asked him up into a trot and we went about 50' ON THE RAIL!! I breathed out and slowed down and so did he but he did get a little crooked when he stopped...something to work on next time...straightness on the stop. We FTR like this in both directions and both were equally good.

Next was split in half over the log...took about 30 seconds for him to put RF and RH over, then nickered and looked at me. Of course, it was cookie time!! Then Renegade suprised me and gave me a gift. I asked him off the log to the side opposite me and he lined himself up and put his RF over then his RH over then looked at me. I immediately went into neutral, he nickered and I gave him a cookie and a short rest. Then I asked him to move his RH back to the other side of the log and sidepass off (away from me). He was a bit sticky but he did it after a couple of phase 1 flicks of the ss. The bring back (sidepass back to me) was not sticky at all, he came right back but stopped at a polite distance from me, looked at me and nickered. No cookie this time...he knows this game REALLY well!!

On to the frisbees and put your foot on it...haha...Renegade's got this game figured out now and tested me to see how particular I was going to be. He stepped near the frisbee, pawed near the frisbee, stepped on just the edge, then finally put his foot on it. Each time he asked me a question until I could finally answer yes when he put his foot on it. I went into neutral again and he nickered. We took a brief rest for some scratches and rubs then did the weave at the walk. It went well and Renegade is looking for me more and following my body language better. We started in the middle of the pattern because that's where we were and he went on the correct side of the cone for where we started and without me having to direct him...tells me he's starting to really understand the pattern and think about it.

COD on the circle is going much better. I sent him out on the circle at a walk and when he came around, I slid my hand down the rope, closed my fingers slowly and WAITED. He softened and came around, staying out of my space and went back out on the circle in the opposite direction. We did two repetitions in each direction and he was nice and soft, no bracing, on each change. I wanted to reward his softness and not wanting to be a drill sargent, I called it quits, asked him in and he enjoyed a cookie while I gave him some rubs, stroked his forehead and his forelock. It was a great place to stop for the night!!