Well, it's been a very exciting week for both Pogo and me. Lots of desensitizing and getting to know each other. We started off the week with some in hand work; "whoa" and "go" - not hard......going to the left. Going to the right, was an adventure of course. We started with just leading on the off side and travelling right and eventually got to lead the lead line out a bit for some mock lunging.
I introduced group poles ASAP, that is not something I want to be foreign when jumping and cavalletti come into play. He was very cute when he saw the pole on the ground...he sniffed it and then proceeded to curb stomp it, like "hey, what IS this??" but alas, other than that, our lives are uneventful (which is how we like them).
I'm trying to build suspense, are you dying to know what happens next? Probably not but keep reading :)
So lunging, fine at the walk and trot, but holy uncoordinated canter. We have a beautiful half circle, lead change, counter canter, run into the wall but that's about it. I wish we had a roundpen....Anyway, in an effort to not make a big deal out of this (cantering CAN wait...if he believes it or not, he is capable) I decided to work with standing at the mounting block and just being patient (as his track name implies, this was not hard EITHER!) so...day after day of boring stuff, what's next?
Hopping on, which is what we did. Today we successfully walked in both directions around the arena by ourselves...yay us. "whoa" and "go" ground commands steadily at work from his back we even could stop, wait, walk on. Of course, probably the most mentally straining 5 minutes of his life, EVER so we didn't push it farther than putting in a circle in both directions and calling it a day.
This day honestly came sooner than I thought, as Pogo plays the "aww shucks I'm a baby" card 90% of the time. In reality, he is an easy going creature with a good brain and is ready to start learning more. Our game plan from here is to investigate the jump course tomorrow(from the ground) and attempt at some sidereins to learn a little more about bit acceptance. So very excited for #1 having survived(there were not even any fireworks so this is basically an empty statement) and #2 accomplishing a lot in a little bit of time.
Props to Poggio!!!
I introduced group poles ASAP, that is not something I want to be foreign when jumping and cavalletti come into play. He was very cute when he saw the pole on the ground...he sniffed it and then proceeded to curb stomp it, like "hey, what IS this??" but alas, other than that, our lives are uneventful (which is how we like them).
I'm trying to build suspense, are you dying to know what happens next? Probably not but keep reading :)
So lunging, fine at the walk and trot, but holy uncoordinated canter. We have a beautiful half circle, lead change, counter canter, run into the wall but that's about it. I wish we had a roundpen....Anyway, in an effort to not make a big deal out of this (cantering CAN wait...if he believes it or not, he is capable) I decided to work with standing at the mounting block and just being patient (as his track name implies, this was not hard EITHER!) so...day after day of boring stuff, what's next?
Hopping on, which is what we did. Today we successfully walked in both directions around the arena by ourselves...yay us. "whoa" and "go" ground commands steadily at work from his back we even could stop, wait, walk on. Of course, probably the most mentally straining 5 minutes of his life, EVER so we didn't push it farther than putting in a circle in both directions and calling it a day.
This day honestly came sooner than I thought, as Pogo plays the "aww shucks I'm a baby" card 90% of the time. In reality, he is an easy going creature with a good brain and is ready to start learning more. Our game plan from here is to investigate the jump course tomorrow(from the ground) and attempt at some sidereins to learn a little more about bit acceptance. So very excited for #1 having survived(there were not even any fireworks so this is basically an empty statement) and #2 accomplishing a lot in a little bit of time.
Props to Poggio!!!
RSS Feed