Smart Pony
Aslan is such a smarty pants. As per Hanna’s instructions, I’ve started working on a few things: head up, shifting his weight back and following a long target. These behaviors will address his desire to plow the arena with his forehand while holding his head in vertical flexion. But he caught on quickly to the weight shift, so I'm very proud of how smart he is. Now to learn that under saddle and hold duration! (Hanna said this could take months). Head up: I put a target on
Backwards and Forwards
Aslan has been having a few moments of "lets go my way" in regards to turning and direction. This has obviously been all my fault, starting with the way I trained him. A few well known horseman suggested allowing the green horse to make a decision to turn and then following with the rein so that he begins to equate the two (turning and pressure on the rein). Anyway, I did that and yep he learned to follow the rein and turn. But then this backfired. You have to get rid of t
Play day
Aslan and I did a fun thing on the weekend - a play day at a ranch. Sadly the last one available since they sold their gorgeous property and are moving on in life. But I hope someone else will start hosting these. A number of odd obstacles are set up in the arena. They range from balls, cones, ramps, teeter totters, cowboy showers, small jumps, barrels, ball pits and so on. The object is not to just get over or through the obstacles, but to work on communication, respect
