Playing Games - Keeping Warm

Well aside from being horribly cold and windy out today I had two really good sessions today. First up was Kallie, when she first arrived at my place the beginning of August as a boarder she was near impossible to catch if she saw you coming with a lead rope or halter, she would take off and it would take 30 minutes to half an hour to get her to square up and stand and not run off when you approached her. Today was a different story; she saw me coming, was a bit hesitant but didn’t try to move away quickly. I clucked and got her to do a few trot strides away from me, and then she turned, faced and started to lick and chew. I had caught her in under a minute! What a HUGE difference! I was beyond happy!

We always start off with lots of friendly game, I do this until she starts to let some of her barriers down and relax. We then did some work on the 12’ line, she had been progressing really well with all 7 games on the 12’ line as well as some of the patterns – so I decided to step it up a notch. We went up to the 22’ line, did some circling, then we attempted to do some Figure-8’s, that didn’t go so well. With the extra rope she was able to drift a lot more and as she wanted to go through the pattern at a trot she was drifting further and further off the mark and wasn’t yielding.

So after some fancy foot work on my part and guiding with the rope and blocking with the carrot stick and savvy string we finally got things sorted out. She really wanted to go into the pressure of the carrot stick and not follow the feel – and then she had her ah-ha moment! I would just start to point in the direction I wanted her to go, lift the rope and she would follow the feel beautifully. She got lots of breaks where lots of licking and chewing took place.

Next it was onto the Squeeze Game over a barrel, we had gone over poles and ropes on the ground, even a small log so I was going to try and step it up a notch. She would approach the barrel perfectly then plant her feet, not wanting to go over, I would back her up and try the send again then she would go Right Brained and panic, taking off in the opposite direction. So with some guidance from a friend I decided to take a few steps backwards to get her confidence up more.

First we would squeeze between the two barrels laying on their side, then a ground pole was put in, then it was set up like half a cross-rail, then finally a vertical. I got her to jump the vertical a few times both directions and decided to call it quits. I was very proud of her! When I took the halter off for the first time she tucked her nose close to my body to allow the halter to slide off her nose rather than lift her head and try to back out of the halter, AND she didn’t walk off she stuck with me having a huge licking session. She must have stood there, close to me just licking away for all she was worth for 5-10 minutes. Even after I left the field she still stood there and licked and chewed, she was processing a lot. And when I went out later to test our relationship she didn’t run off, she actually turned her head towards me looking for a rub on the head. We are making some real progress now!!

So after the session with Kallie it was time to go inside and warm up!! After I was all toasty it was time to throw on the layers again and head out side for another session – this time with Blue. He quite eagerly walked up to me and practically shoved his nose into the halter, earlier when I had been playing with Kallie he was following us around wanting to play as well.

We did some Friendly Game, some Driving and Porcupine Game, then we went into the feeding stall area which isn’t fully complete and did some sideways game, and he is doing excellent with that especially to the left. We then did a weave between the end posts of the feeding stalls (we have yet to put up the rest of the horizontal boards) and Blue was great, he would get a little sticky at the ends at first, but as we continued he basically started weaving on his own. Next we did some Figure-8’s, he is a little slow, and pokes along, but will go around and through, follow the drawn and then the drive I think getting him to do it at a trot and canter is going to be a challenge.

Next was the Squeeze Game, we were focusing on squeezing over things today, so we squeezed over the barrels laying on their side, that was easy for Blue, he has been doing it for awhile. So we made a vertical rail just like we had done for Kallie, no problem either. Then just for the fun of it I put the two barrels upright and put a vertical across between the two. I figured that he might not have enough “try” to do it but he tucked his knees up and over he went (sure he clipped it with his hooves but he really tried!). So we did this a few times, I had to work on sending him to the obstacle a bit straighter because he couldn’t angle himself correctly over the bar if I sent him awkwardly. I was so proud of my boy; he was jumping 3+ feet with all kinds of try in him!

That is where we ended our online session. I then proceeded to play with him and Lexi (my friends 4-month-old Quarter Horse filly), it was a little game of follow the leader and matching strides/speeds. And shortly I was too cold and too tired to do anything else, so I gave my ponies a hug and that was where we ended our play sessions for the day.