Friendly progress and the Circle Game

It’s been a rough week to find time for Lola. With the kids being out of camp and school, it is a juggle to find time for work, kids and of course, horse. The kids and I went to the barn together on Tuesday, and Lola seemed quite happy. I groomed her and let her graze and that was about it. I can't imagine having her in a barn with limited turn out. I would worry about her all the time.

I went up this afternoon without kids. Gave her a good grooming and played lots of Friendly game with her. She is improving so much! Her only tough spots have been her nose and mouth. She totally lets me rub all over her nostrils now and doesn’t seem to care at all. She will also let me rub all over her lips with no trouble. She’s starting letting me put a finger in her mouth to rub her gums a little, but she is still a bit apprehensive about it. We are just taking it slow and keeping with it.

After I groomed her, I let her graze a little, and did a little Friendly and Porcupine game in the driveway. Then we went for a walk down the road. For some reason the road was really busy today. Cars kept going by in both directions, sometimes two at a time. I let Lola stop and graze whenever a car came by and we didn’t have any trouble at all. I’ve got to learn to relax more and I think she will too.

I tried to do a little more with her in the driveway when we got back, but the flies were horrible. It didn’t seem to matter how much fly spray I put on her or me!

I let her graze for a bit, and then took her down to the indoor to see if the flies were any better there. They were actually quite a bit less bothersome inside. I did some Driving game and some Yo-Yo game and then decided to work on Circle game a little bit. We only did it at the walk, but she totally understands my send now which is great. Now I just need to figure out how to up my send to get her to circle at a trot.

I used porcupine game to back her over a ground pole today. She was very worried at first, but soon figured it right out.

I tried a little bit of Sideways game and for her first time, that went pretty well too. She got a little frazzled at first, then figured out what I wanted and took a couple of steps. I called it a day right then.

Back on the mounting block to lean over her back a bit. She’s still not very comfortable about that. I leaned on her, played Friendly game from up there, and rubbed her all over from my vantage point. She tried to walk forward a couple of times, but eventually just stood there and looked at me funny. I thought that was a good time to call it a day.

I emailed Sarah about changing Lola’s diet. I’m going to start by taking her off Charger and just feeding her Trotter. Then I’m going to slowly add some hay pellets and slowly wean her off the Trotter. Eventually, I want her just eating the hay pellets, a fat supplement, and regular hay, but I want to take it nice and slow with the transition. I hope Sarah doesn’t hate me for changing things around.