DAY 2: WORKING AT HOME

DAY 2: Morning - It was a sunny morning as we headed out to the round pen for a review of all the things we learned yesterday. Annie seemed in good spirits and is settling in well. We can tell she is not used to be housed alone so we are going to let her hang out in the big pasture (about three acres) with the geldings after the session and she how she does.

We started right off by moving her feet at the trot to warm up. Then it was on to the lope. We worked on getting better consistency in the faster gaits today. She is out of shape and breaks into a sweat pretty easily. Still she did better that yesterday! We got “two eyes” and some good changes of direction too. It is very clear that she has not done this kind of work before. The conditioning aspect is good too. Her energy today was engages but not fearful or explosive and she was more mindful about the human’s personal space. All in all good improvements in the round pen.

Then we reviewed three of the four methods of Backing. Tap the Air seems to be the hardest to understand possibly because is starts off so subtle. A whack on the rope when the feet refused to move was a reminder of what was expected. After that she was thinking about the back up. The other two methods went pretty well. Introduced Steady Pressure Backing. She grasped that pretty quickly. She is Flexing laterally pretty well for the second day! Yield the HQ Stage 1 was not great and she needed some taps on the hip to get the point. Once she did she owned the concept though.

We wrapped up the session with more desensitizing and even let her play with the plastic bag on a stick. No fear of it at all. Then it was a nice rub down and off to explore more of the property.

Afternoon - Before the evening meal it was “Socialize with the Humans” time. Went out to the pasture with a few treats in the pocket and sat on one of the stumps we use as an obstacle and just hung out. All three horses came by, got some loving and scratches and a treat. Annie was checked for some “oh no” spots but nothing popped up. However she LOVES to play in the 100 gallon water trough. Face in it up to the eyeballs and splashing around. Even stuck her hoof in it! One of her mighty splashes actually flung one of the fish we use to keep the mosquito population down out of the trough! We had three, CLINTON, CHRIS and BUCK. Buck did not survive the journey. We may have to rethink the other two living in there. Tomorrow we will meet up with some Brumbies for a session! New place and new people for Annie to experience!

 Killed the plastic bag. Check.

Hanging out with her new boyfriend Ronan.

Take one from this side, human!

Argent asking is she is really staying. Annie says "yes."