Guess what Brandy did today! She took two steps sideways down a pole!!! Here is how it happened: I was grooming Brandy by the mounting block while Donna was setting up some obstacles for her horse Zaina. Then she went to get her and I started to play stick to me with Brandy. I saw the pole and asked her to put her front feet over it. Brandy looked very comfortable with the pole between her feet so I asked (using the porcupine game) her to take one step sideways, she did and even offered another one!!!!
The yoyo game was really light and Brandy was really paying attention to me. She still gets stuck sometimes but a bit less then she used to. Adding the driving game is really helping her.
After the yoyo game we started to play the circling game. My new more effective strategy is to ask her to do something harder if she breaks gait. Making the right thing easy and the wrong thing hard. Brandy was not very sore today so I asked her to trot a little bit. The first time she broke gait I asked her to back up then change direction then trot. After repeating this one more time she walked three laps around without breaking gait. Her disengage was nice too.
I wanted Brandy to take one forequarter yield step both directions without my hand on her nose. It was tons of fun to help her figure out this puzzle. Of course we quit when she finally took one step at phase one without my hand on her nose.
After our play session I did the bladder meridian on both sides and got her to release at the poll and the HQ.
The only thing that did not go as planned was that it was very windy and we couldn't play with the ball.
The yoyo game was really light and Brandy was really paying attention to me. She still gets stuck sometimes but a bit less then she used to. Adding the driving game is really helping her.
After the yoyo game we started to play the circling game. My new more effective strategy is to ask her to do something harder if she breaks gait. Making the right thing easy and the wrong thing hard. Brandy was not very sore today so I asked her to trot a little bit. The first time she broke gait I asked her to back up then change direction then trot. After repeating this one more time she walked three laps around without breaking gait. Her disengage was nice too.
I wanted Brandy to take one forequarter yield step both directions without my hand on her nose. It was tons of fun to help her figure out this puzzle. Of course we quit when she finally took one step at phase one without my hand on her nose.
After our play session I did the bladder meridian on both sides and got her to release at the poll and the HQ.
The only thing that did not go as planned was that it was very windy and we couldn't play with the ball.