Beautiful Summer-Winter Day

Official Records Information
Blu
2 hours
2-8-10
Afternoon

It was so beautiful today! Thirty-two degrees! The weekend was frigid with extreme gusts that sucked the warmth out of you within moments, but today, the sun was blazing and there was not a bit of wind to be felt. It felt like summer! Hooray!

I let Blu onto the North side and went from there. He followed me to two barrels I had set up, about 6 feet apart. One had ropes and the halter on it and the other had a pile of carrots on it. He went straight to the one with the ropes on it. I let him smell them for a few seconds, then I began to drive him to the other barrel. He wheeled away and ran off when I began to follow him. After I attracted him to me again, we basically repeated the same thing, only this time I let him have more time at the other barrel. This time, when he ran off, I did not chase after him, but I watched. He began looking at poop. So, I walked around and kicked the poop-sickle piles. I especially tried to kick them at Blu, which got his attention eventually. Once he was actively watching me, I went over and laid on a barrel (which, by the way was so warm!). Within a minute, Blu's wet nose (which had been smelling horsey poop and snow) touched my forehead. I lead him to the carrot barrel with a strand of his mane as support. After he had cleaned it up, I went to the other barrel, grabbed the normal stiff rope halter and went back to the now empty barrel, and he followed me.

I asked him to hand me the halter with my "Dame" (pronounced "DAH-may," meaning "Give me" in Spanish) command and pointing at the halter. I wanted him to understand that when I held out my hand, I wanted him to put the halter in my hand. We are getting there. He understands that he does not get a treat until the object is in my hand, I think. I walked to the other barrel to halter him with the Parelli halter. He was super cooperative with haltering, no obstinacy whatsoever.

I yoyoed him out and he was completely backing up at phase one. He was sluggish to go, but I ddi not tag him the first time because we were on an icy patch. I began moving the circle to somewhere with better footing. I ended up standing in the foot deep 5'x6' hole we have. There, I did lots of change of direction until he relaxed and did them lightly. Maneuvering the hole helped him to relax quicker because it was too difficult to do it while he was not calm. I also got his respect during the allow up by improving the send.

Unlike Misty, Blu's sideways has really become poor. I basically had to reteach him to go sideways. He was also non-responsive when I asked him to yield his hindquarters to me. I taught him to be responsive to that and moved on.

I did a stick to me that flowed into a falling leaf. He was very controlled and smooth, so I took him grazing.

I took Blu out to the driveway and did stick to me and pawing on cue. He was threatening to bite every time we went into the trot, but not with his ears back. He would just reach his mouth over and bit my jacket or try to bite my hand. It was slower, not like a snake strike and not like a snail, but medium speed. I began to put the line to his mouth every time I asked for the trot, and twice, I put the line in his mouth like a bit and then asked for the trot. After that, he stopped trying to bite and maintained a very pleasant demeanor. Furthermore, I did many transitions from walk to trot with little time staying in the same gait, and he stayed right in sync. His paw needs work, though. He is hitting a hurdle when we move it to the driveway and I ask for the one foot to paw then the other.

After I put Blu away, I stood with Misty and sort of had 10 minutes of down time. It was just a nice hang out sort of thing I had to do because Misty was asking...

Natural Horsewoman Out.