Driving at the Barn
Dave’s away, so I decided to head to the barn this morning while the kids were at camp. I figured that I could work tonight after the kids were asleep, and then I could have a little barn time too.
I’m starting to really get into some fun stuff with the Parelli program. The latest lesson I’m reading/watching, is teaching how to pick up all four of the horses feet from one side, and also how to drive the horse from Zone 3, (the side of the horse.) I'm also working on getting Lola to put her head down when I ask her to, and to keep it down until I ask her to pick it up, but that isn't really as much fun as the new driving game I was doing today.
When I got to the barn today, Lola was basically black. Forget those big white patches she used to have, she was just a ball of mud. I hosed her off, and checked out all her new scrapes. She seems to itch herself quite a bit, and in the process rubs fur off her face and butt. Nice. Thankfully, none of them have been seriously so far.
I played Friendly, Porcupine, Driving and Yo-Yo Games. I spent an extra lot of time playing Friendly and Porcupine with her legs. Lots of rubbing them, practicing to get her to lift them as easily as possible, but not yet trying to left all four from one side.
Then we tried the Driving from Zone 3 task. It was quite a bit more challenging than I expected. The idea is to stand next to the horse with the lead rope in one hand, loose, and the carrot stick in the hand closest to the horse, resting on the horses withers, or tapping the top of the butt to ask the horse to move forward. Sounds simple enough, right? The problem is trying to keep focus on where you are trying to go, while juggling the rope, the carrot stick, and the horse that of course wants to go in a different direction. We had a couple of successful tries, but it is definitely something I’m going to need to work on a bit more. At least it is a fun and different game to play. You are supposed to pick a specific location to drive the horse to, a rope on a fence, a fence post, the end of a jump, etc. The idea is to focus on the place you want to go, and drive the horse there and put its nose on the object/spot. I had to take some time practicing turning so that Lola understood that I wanted her to do what I was doing. Really all she wanted to do is eat grass.
I’m really looking forward to the new barn. She’ll be turned out on grass, so hopefully it won’t be as much of an obsession when I’m trying to work with her, and the ring is sand, so I’ll have a place to work without worrying about her snacking all the time!
That pretty much took up my time with her today. Of course I groomed her a bit, covered her in fly spray several times, and put ointment on all her boo-boos.
I’m really enjoying the new Parelli Level 1 kit. The directions are good, and the order makes sense. It is so logical to do this driving from Zone 3 thing before introducing the Circle game.
I’ve got to get to bed. Going to the barn this morning was awesome, but then I had to work tonight, didn’t finish until after midnight, and now it is after 1:30am. I wish I wasn’t such a night owl sometimes, but if I wasn’t I’d probably never get anything done!
I’m starting to really get into some fun stuff with the Parelli program. The latest lesson I’m reading/watching, is teaching how to pick up all four of the horses feet from one side, and also how to drive the horse from Zone 3, (the side of the horse.) I'm also working on getting Lola to put her head down when I ask her to, and to keep it down until I ask her to pick it up, but that isn't really as much fun as the new driving game I was doing today.
When I got to the barn today, Lola was basically black. Forget those big white patches she used to have, she was just a ball of mud. I hosed her off, and checked out all her new scrapes. She seems to itch herself quite a bit, and in the process rubs fur off her face and butt. Nice. Thankfully, none of them have been seriously so far.
I played Friendly, Porcupine, Driving and Yo-Yo Games. I spent an extra lot of time playing Friendly and Porcupine with her legs. Lots of rubbing them, practicing to get her to lift them as easily as possible, but not yet trying to left all four from one side.
Then we tried the Driving from Zone 3 task. It was quite a bit more challenging than I expected. The idea is to stand next to the horse with the lead rope in one hand, loose, and the carrot stick in the hand closest to the horse, resting on the horses withers, or tapping the top of the butt to ask the horse to move forward. Sounds simple enough, right? The problem is trying to keep focus on where you are trying to go, while juggling the rope, the carrot stick, and the horse that of course wants to go in a different direction. We had a couple of successful tries, but it is definitely something I’m going to need to work on a bit more. At least it is a fun and different game to play. You are supposed to pick a specific location to drive the horse to, a rope on a fence, a fence post, the end of a jump, etc. The idea is to focus on the place you want to go, and drive the horse there and put its nose on the object/spot. I had to take some time practicing turning so that Lola understood that I wanted her to do what I was doing. Really all she wanted to do is eat grass.
I’m really looking forward to the new barn. She’ll be turned out on grass, so hopefully it won’t be as much of an obsession when I’m trying to work with her, and the ring is sand, so I’ll have a place to work without worrying about her snacking all the time!
That pretty much took up my time with her today. Of course I groomed her a bit, covered her in fly spray several times, and put ointment on all her boo-boos.
I’m really enjoying the new Parelli Level 1 kit. The directions are good, and the order makes sense. It is so logical to do this driving from Zone 3 thing before introducing the Circle game.
I’ve got to get to bed. Going to the barn this morning was awesome, but then I had to work tonight, didn’t finish until after midnight, and now it is after 1:30am. I wish I wasn’t such a night owl sometimes, but if I wasn’t I’d probably never get anything done!
posted by Lisa @ 1:37 AM
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