After a sore weekend of WWI reenacting, it was time to get back with Max again and ride. Naturally, Max has had a nice weekend off and he was not really in the mood to work- pretty typical horse there. :-)
Because I was pretty sore in the arms from the weekend, I was not really in the mood to do too much (well, at least it forced me to use my legs like I should rather than my arms! :-)). Anyway, after doing some ground work to focus Max's attention, we proceeded on a leisurely ride down the wash. I made a point of stopping every now and again and simply made Max stand and wait.
We then headed over to some practice rings located close to Orcas Park. As we approached the rings, Max spied a horse-eating trash can and he expressed his reluctance to go further (it was a trash can that had been knocked over on its side). Normally Max doesn't shy away at this sort of thing but it was at an odd angle so who knows? At any rate, Max expressed his desire to depart but I kept spinning him around and made him walk towards the can in ever-closing circles. I didn't rush things but I made it clear to Max that backing away was not an option.
After about five minutes, Max began to relax and then pretty much ignored it. We then proceeded to go into one of the rings and worked on trot/canter transitions. After about 10 minutes, we then headed home. On the way home, Max had his attention focused on a number of dogs wandering in the wash (I really wish people would control their animals) and I had to carefully work to keep Max's attention. We finally put some distance between us and the dogs and then proceeded to head home.
It's interesting how often things turn into training opportunities and last night was a good example of this. Fortunately Max is pretty adpatable and thus receptive to my efforts.
Because I was pretty sore in the arms from the weekend, I was not really in the mood to do too much (well, at least it forced me to use my legs like I should rather than my arms! :-)). Anyway, after doing some ground work to focus Max's attention, we proceeded on a leisurely ride down the wash. I made a point of stopping every now and again and simply made Max stand and wait.
We then headed over to some practice rings located close to Orcas Park. As we approached the rings, Max spied a horse-eating trash can and he expressed his reluctance to go further (it was a trash can that had been knocked over on its side). Normally Max doesn't shy away at this sort of thing but it was at an odd angle so who knows? At any rate, Max expressed his desire to depart but I kept spinning him around and made him walk towards the can in ever-closing circles. I didn't rush things but I made it clear to Max that backing away was not an option.
After about five minutes, Max began to relax and then pretty much ignored it. We then proceeded to go into one of the rings and worked on trot/canter transitions. After about 10 minutes, we then headed home. On the way home, Max had his attention focused on a number of dogs wandering in the wash (I really wish people would control their animals) and I had to carefully work to keep Max's attention. We finally put some distance between us and the dogs and then proceeded to head home.
It's interesting how often things turn into training opportunities and last night was a good example of this. Fortunately Max is pretty adpatable and thus receptive to my efforts.
No comments:
Post a Comment