Just Enough and Quitting When We're Ahead

I really wanted to go out and play with the horses again, but I knew I had to keep it light and short after such an involved session earlier.

I started with a great expression from Blu. He was in a run-in stall and wanted to chat with me. When I stepped outside, he came right out and followed me totally freely to the round pen.

He was really connected right off. He was by the gate, but I could draw him to me by backing up. I had a barrel and wanted to just let him do what he would with it. He wanted to be with me, so I was careful not to kill that as I redirected his attention to the barrel. What he offered was almost sideways over it, licking and biting and nudging it, pawing it and putting a foot on it. His expression was beautiful and he had this HUGE draw to me, so that was our end!

Blu followed me to the gate, waited while I tied it shut again, and followed me out of the barn and off into the outside. We went on a walk at liberty out in the open! That's how much his draw has improved lately! He decided some grass was better than the baby patch I stopped at, but when I went with him and suggested we leave, we were off.

He had some life as we came down the hill and I put my hand on him to slow him down again. While he grazed, I massaged him a bit. Before we left, I worked a bit on his "pay attention" by flicking his peepee for a phase 4 if he didn't stop grazing when I asked him to come with me. Once he wasn't grazing, draw was fine. It was really interesting and cool to have no line on during our walk. Wouldn't it be cool to be in the summer time to see if he is drawn enough to me to do a liberty walk despite all the grass?

Natural Horsewoman Out.