Thursday's Groundwork

Tonight was an awesome night. First of all I set up a star shape to improve his co-ordination. At first he was scared of the poles but then when he saw I wasn't afraid of them, he decided he wasn't either. We walked both ways across it. I got the idea out of the book Groundwork Training for your horse by Lesley Baily (featured on my horse book blog).

After I did the star I extended the L shape to make him back through two corners. He did well on the first corner the first time but it took him three times to get the second corner but I was so proud of him. He seems to pick this stuff up after a couple of tries and lots of patience from me! So far the evening was going well.

My next thing I got the idea from Marion from Sussex ,NJ who is off of horsechannel (sorry don't know her last name). She gave me the idea to put poles on the ground 2 feet apart and walk him through that. I put about 7 in a row and walked him through it. I did that like 5 times and then I spaced them 3 feet apart and trotted him through. He didn't like that to much at first but then he did it for me willingly:) We did that 2 times because he was still wasn't exactly comfortable to trot through them.

The last thing we did was the hardest I would say for us to both pick up. I have been trying to teach him and me how to lunge. Tonight I read about it in the book I talked previously about (Groundwork training for your horse) and it talked about lungeing. So I read on it and decided to see if I could try it. At first he had no clue what I wanted him to do so I got my little sister Rachel to walk along the outside of him holdin on the rope to urge him on. We walked in about 10 circles till I told her to let go of the rope and just walk beside him. He had finally picked it up and so he did great. Then I told Rachel not to walk beside him at all and HE STILL WALKED ON:) To say the least, I was so proud of him. I then let him rest to see if he would do it again after the break. AND HE DID:) I then switched directions and he needs to work on that. I will work on that tomorrow but so far I have gotten nothing but good results from him. And I am so proud. Then to end the session I got him to move away from my pressure with him facing the fence. But all together he did well and I hope tomorrow's session goes just as well.

Just a special thanks to all my friends that have given me advice and like to hear our updates. I enjoy writing them as much as I hope you enjoy reading them.