Three Awesome Sessions

This week was Kallie’s week to get her feet trimmed, and since it was a bit cooler in the morning, and the bugs to bad I decided to tackle them today. She didn’t want to stand still a whole lot and kept trying to pull her feet away from me, so we moved around more than she would have liked, playing the sideways game, and yo-yo game until she could stand in one spot and let me handle her feet.

Once the torture to her feet was done we had a bit of a play session, we played through all of the games then I decided to try something new with her. We have two large tractor tires in the field that we normally use to do Figure-8’s around so I played around them for a bit, then I would send her to it and she would put her nose on it and actually put her feet on it. I was quite shocked so I asked for a little bit more and she put one hoof in, then another in. Soon she had her two front hooves in and I just waited and rubber her while she went into a major lick and chew session.

I think took her out of the tire, and sent her back too it, with her front feet in I then asked her to yield her hind quarters, while keeping her feet in the center of the tire. I just had to look at her hind quarters and she yielded them! We were easily able to do a full circle around the tire without me having to touch her. Then another lick and chew session.

Next we tried her back feet in the tire, and her front feet out, we waited again while she licked and chewed then I asked her to yield her fore quarters, at first she wanted to step forward but it only took two corrections to get her to keep her back feet in while we moved her front end around.

I was very impressed with my girl so we ended it there. I took her halter off and she had a huge lick and chew session again, I hung out with her, rubbing her, she then proceeded to give me a tongue bath, licking my legs, my arms, even my face! When I thought she was done her lick and chew session I stood up and she followed me to the edge of the paddock, this is a big thing for her, so of course I gave her a big treat, rubbed her all over and told her what a good girl she was. After I left she stood at the fence licking like crazy.

Later on I came out to play with Tru again, she was easy to catch and halter, I then scratched her itchy spots, making her make funny faces and lean into the rubs. Then I worked on just playing the Friendly Game with the carrot stick and savvy string. It didn’t take her long to stop moving her feet, I was able to toss the string over her back five times to the left and five times to the right with only having to start over twice because she moved her feet. She licked and chewed and let out a big huff of air so I took the halter off, she then followed me around so I loved on her a bit more. I am very impressed with my little girl.

After feeding the horses supper I brought up my halter and lead to work with Blue, we worked more on improving his lateral flexion, he is getting really good with it. I find he is much better to the left than the right. So we worked on the right side twice as long until I got the results I wanted. Next I worked on getting him to lower his head and keep it down while I stood up. We are at the point now where I just point to the ground and his head goes down and it doesn’t come up until I say “okay” very impressed with that! Finally we worked on getting him to yield his hind quarters around while I put the pressure on Zone 3 as if I were in the saddle and using my leg. I brought up my energy and just touched the hair barely and he was yielding. He did fantastic! We worked on this a few more times and I would just bring up my energy and he would yield!