He just needed to know I had phases!

Yep, I got to play today and it was great.

Gingy and I had a super time together and I even got to hang out with Marsan for a little.

After having posted about the new things that I've been teaching Gingy it got me inspired. I set a feed bucket against the fence to see if he would put his back feet in. It took some heavy duty explaining to get him to understand what I wanted and then he tried to do it, I released. After several tries he got both back feet in the bucket!

Of course we worked on the figure eight a little more. Once again took a little while for him to really get thinking about what he was doing. During that time it took him to get "in the groove" I found something out about his draw issue. I hadn't been using any phases with him! I had pretty much done everything, but give him straight and simple phases. Once I realized this things changed for the better. It only took him a couple of laps to start drawing when I first combed the rope. At first though I had to from combing the rope just barely to running it through my hands like tomorrow wouldn't come! Wow, I just couldn't believe it could be that simple!!!!!! I'm hoping that once I can get him to do at least five laps on a regular basis then I'll really be able to start refining. I realized that he has to be able to go for a lot longer than one lap before I can start provoking those little changes that refinement is all about.

I can't wait for tomorrow when I'll be able to work with him again.

Oh yeah, I wanted to put in a few words about my time with Marsan. I still don't really feel like trying to work with Marsan's many sessions, but I did feel like working through her very tangled hair LOL. I took out our metal comb and the super strong hair detangler, then I got Marsy. We had a short but very interesting catching game. When I got to the gate she came over, but when I let her sniff the halter through the fence she walked away as if to leave. When she was about five feet away she wheeled and came back hmmmmmmm..... After that I decided to walk away, hoping that she would follow. I made a motion to let her know I wanted her to come to then I waited for what seemed like hours when it was really only about 2 minutes! I was suprised when I heard her hooves on the dirt and the sound wasn't reseading, it was getting closer. She came around me and turned to face me. After saying hello I haltered her and away we went.

A while back I had made a pattern with her of rubbing her with the comb and squeezing the detangler bottle so it would make a weird noise, so I didn't have to do much approach and retreat this time. I put some hay on the groung for her and she was happy to eat. As I gently worked the snarls out of her long black mane she lost her tense nervous look. She had started grazing through the pile with her forehand slanting away from me, but when she relaxed she started eating right against me. We both felt so relaxed and it was so wonderful.