The Plans I Make

Blu walked off as soon as I put him in the North Pasture. I was okay with that because Misty came right over. While Blu amused himself with amazing poop he has never smelled before (!), I played with Misty. She did the weave pattern on straight line of 3 cones with me 12-15 feet away. It was so soft!

It was not too long before Blu decided that he should see what I had going on over there. I parked Misty at cone and began to drive him from zone 5. At first, he had no idea what I was doing and was a bit concerned that I might be chasing him. I just mirrored him until he relaxed--I could see that this was not escalating but rather quickly deescalating. Once he had the plan down, I was able to play with him. I got several "almost" close circles at liberty. We ended by driving from zone 5 to the cones.

The WHOLE time I was bumbling around with Blu, Misty stood at the cone I parked her at! Wow. That was a pleasant surprise. Now, I parked Blu at a cone. I backed away from them about 50' then called Blu ("BlUUUuuuu!"). He immediately began ambling to me. Once he had a few strides, I whistled to Misty. Misty turned and trotted to me. Blu made his path to me a bit more arched now to avoid any fuss with Misty. When he arrived, they both got a cookie.

Next, I tried to get them both on the pedestal. HUGE rolling eyes! Misty would not let Blu up there with her, and if Blu was up there first, she would do a big chomp on him. Sigh. I made so much progress on this front last winter. Looks like I have to start from square one establishing myself as boss hoss, though.

I stood on the pedestal and Misty came sideways to me. I hopped on, no problem, and we rode away, Blu following us. He got pretty spunky when we started going faster. I did get nervous at one point when we were in the back of the pasture and Misty was getting adrenaline going. I blocked her way until she began to relax a bit (she was just excited). Phew!

Overall, it was a very lovely time. We did not really do anything towards any goals, which is funny since today I was going to ride Blu to get ready for tomorrow's lesson. I wanted to have questions ready and everything. . . oh the plans I make. . .

Natural Horsewoman Out.

Blu, (Liberty, 45 mins) More driving from zone 5, but this time we were out in the open pasture and we were playing with Misty. I played with Misty until Blu was interested in me. I tried calling them from their parked spots at a couple cones (misty comes when I whistle, Blu when I call his name). I called Blu first, and he headed to me, then after a few strides, I called Misty :D and she came over.

I got one circle. More on the blog eventually….