This week's pink pony is Benji, who now lives out full time and comes up to be caught in the field. Today we worked on his leading and what to do if he plants, building up to trot in hand, leg handling and tying up. Asking a horse to walk around in a circle, either as a part of ground or ridden work, throws up an interesting pattern. Most horses seem to divide the circle into four and exhibit a behaviour in each section. In Benji's case he would plant in section 1, become distracted in section 2 where he could see the riding school horses, come in with his shoulder in section 3 (so that he could still see the riding school horses) and then hold on to his lead rope in section 4. Hilary and I worked on ironing out those corners - using angles to un-plant him, asking for his attentions with a light pressure, using body language to ask him not to lean with his shoulder and vibrating the rope to ask him to let it go. Four great training opportunities in just one circuit and by the end of just three circuits he was walking nicely all of the way round.
Incidentally, I wouldn't tie a horse up to solid rings of baler twine even when they have been trained. If they pull back it won't give and it won't break. Hilary has an Equi-ping ready for when he can actually be tied up.
"Thank you for the visit, it makes such a big difference each time. When I work with him we make baby steps of progress but your visits enable us to make BIG steps forward!" HP
