For Sunday my lesson was cancelled due to the arena being too swampy from the recent rains so Max and I got the day off- sort of. There has been some rain overnight and the clouds were looking pretty threatening when I left my house so I wasn't sure what was going to happen.
By the time I'd arrived at the stables, there was mixed cloud cover and it looked pretty ugly towards the mountains. However, while it was muddy, it wasn't raining so I decided it was a good opportunity to get in some saddle time. After saddling and tacking up Max (and cleaning all the dried mud off of him!), two friends of mine had also shown up at the stables and we decided to go on a ride around the lake in the Hansen Dam Basin.
The weather was actually pretty nice with mixed clouds and sunglight and we proceeded to start our along the base of Hansem Dam. Eventually we made our way towards the park where we eventually encountered people- especially people on bikes.
Unfortunately, I haven't put in a lot of work in this area so Max was definately in fear of the bikes and at several instances I had to struggle to keep him focused on me and not on the bike.
Other than the bikes, there weren't any issues and after about two and a half hours we finally got back to the stables. Contrary to my prediction of rain, it was actually pretty sunny and it warmed up a bit.
After giving Max a break, I decided to start getting Max desensitized to bikes so I put him in the arena and then walked in with a bike. Max was pretty good about coming up to the bike and sniffing it when it was stationary (although you could hear him snort). However, when I moved the bike, he'd back away. I basically spend about 20 minutes riding and walking the bike around the arena. Maz would stop, look at me, and then trot off if I got too close. Riding the bike was a bit diffcult because of the uneven surface and mud in the arena.
I'm going to have to be patient about this but I'm confident that eventually I can work him over his fears of bikes. It's just going to take some time.
By the time I'd arrived at the stables, there was mixed cloud cover and it looked pretty ugly towards the mountains. However, while it was muddy, it wasn't raining so I decided it was a good opportunity to get in some saddle time. After saddling and tacking up Max (and cleaning all the dried mud off of him!), two friends of mine had also shown up at the stables and we decided to go on a ride around the lake in the Hansen Dam Basin.
The weather was actually pretty nice with mixed clouds and sunglight and we proceeded to start our along the base of Hansem Dam. Eventually we made our way towards the park where we eventually encountered people- especially people on bikes.
Unfortunately, I haven't put in a lot of work in this area so Max was definately in fear of the bikes and at several instances I had to struggle to keep him focused on me and not on the bike.
Other than the bikes, there weren't any issues and after about two and a half hours we finally got back to the stables. Contrary to my prediction of rain, it was actually pretty sunny and it warmed up a bit.
After giving Max a break, I decided to start getting Max desensitized to bikes so I put him in the arena and then walked in with a bike. Max was pretty good about coming up to the bike and sniffing it when it was stationary (although you could hear him snort). However, when I moved the bike, he'd back away. I basically spend about 20 minutes riding and walking the bike around the arena. Maz would stop, look at me, and then trot off if I got too close. Riding the bike was a bit diffcult because of the uneven surface and mud in the arena.
I'm going to have to be patient about this but I'm confident that eventually I can work him over his fears of bikes. It's just going to take some time.
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