Wow tonight went really well..by the end that is. I got to Sharon's place a bit before 5 and we moved some of the horses around then we put Beauty in the round pen. I got in there with her by myself at first. I got her to get going and at first she did ok but then she started to test me and go to a corner and turn her behind toward me to turn. Sharon was standing by the small gate giving me advice (which was fine). After a bit of this Sharon asks if it is ok if she comes in to show me how she would do it. I said sure. When Beauty wouldn't listen we would crack the whip and if she didn't go then we would hit her (with the whip) and I didn't really hit her hard enough because I was just making her mad (Sharon called them love taps). We would only get after her if she went into the corner, turned her behind toward us when turning or came into the the middle (our space). Beauty would go into a corner when we asked her to turn and sometimes she decided to turn on her own and instead of turning with her face toward us she turned with her behind toward us (which is not good..you want two eyes instead of two heels). Well anyway Sharon comes in and Beauty starts testing her out. This goes on for a while and Beauty was getting more mad because Sharon was actually telling her what to do! Sharon and I both think this is one of the first times Beauty was ever told what to do and had no choice about it. If she did the right thing she was left alone if she did the wrong thing we got after her about it (Sharon said she had two other horses that did this and now you would nver know) Well Beauty wanted out of the round pen (there is a big gate and a small gate and the small gate is the one that led into the barn and the big gate led out into the other pens) instead of giving in. Well she ends up going thru the little gate (didn't break it) and takes off down the road. I go and get her and bring her back. Then I put her in the round pen, get in with her and lunge her again. This time she doesn't act as bad and she went around the circle without going into the corner. Since she was starting to give in I let her go around the circle one full time and then I asked her to turn around and then I let her go around the circle three times without acting up and she did. You could tell that she was more obediant and willing to listen because she was licking her lips and flicking her ears at me. She was definitely concentrating more on what I wanted her to do than what she wanted. I was very very happy with her. Since she was very warm and sweated we took her to the cross ties and sprayed her down (which was the plan all along). She didn't give as much of a fuss as we thought she would and by the time we were done with that she did good. I let her in the cross ties for about an hour so she could dry off and get used to them.
I think the lunging went well. I like free lunging because I think you can earn a horses respect real quick because you are able to control them with body language and without touching them. That to me is awesome. I think Monday we will give her a refresher course on the lunging and see how she does and then depending on that we will maybe put the saddle on her. About the pics the first one is of Curly..I didn't get any of him here yet as I was working yesterday and today and then going to Sharon's so no time to take pics. Tomorrow I hope to ride Curly and also get some pics of me on him!
Then the next two are of Riley (the boy that has Navajo) and Navajo. I got some e-mails from Riley's mom and Navajo is doing great..That I am glad to hear!!
The next three are of Beauty and her pasture mates. She was in the pasture till tonight. Sharon's one horse has arthirites so he needed to be in the pasture so she is in one of the other areas. But she had a sheep and a goat as pasture mates in the pasture =) Enjoy the photos!! I want to get some of Beauty running but she didn't do it the other night. We shall see!!
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