I've started playing something with Star that I call the stop/go game, basically it's a further refinement of WWYLM. So I want her to walk when I do, match my speed and also stop when I do. Two reasons behind this are that I'd like Star to be attentive to what I'm doing and I'd also like her to be controlled. After Star's had her barefoot trim my trimmer likes to see her trotted up to make sure she's sound and asses her gait. the thing about Star is she'll often do a bit of trot then get overexcited and maybe buck a bit, which is what I'd like to stop. Star isn't a lazy horse by any means and she does like to move but when she's doing it near me she also needs to be moving in a controlled way too.
At the moment when we play this I'm doing it in walk so she gets to understand that sticking with me and matching me is a good thing, so eventually I can work up to asking for a couple of strides of trot and then more. So she doesn't guess I'm trying to vary how many strides I take before I stop, varying pace and when those are established we'll work on turns too.
I have to say she quite likes her bell. Already she can ring it by pushing it with her lips and doesn't seem bothered by the noise at all. Hopefully I can shape her to work the string too. I wormed her yesterday too and was quite pleased it all went down this time without her chewing the syringe!
Congrats on the awesome worming lol. That's one thing I love about Chrome because the mare I grew up with hated dewormer. :)
ReplyDeleteI need to work on the leading with Chrome. He doesn't listen to whoa . . . which could be very bad lol. I just haven't worked on it. It's the whole paralysis by analysis and also the reason I haven't taught Jackal to heel lol. I psyche myself out sometimes. I am going to work on it though because it will be crucial when we start our ground driving.