Just an exciting note from our work the other day...
It's been opressively hot the past week. Anyone who knows me knows I love heat, but we're talking the kind where I've got sweat bubbles all over my skin and yet I still feel heat radiating off me like a furnace on high. No evaporation. I generally prefer to have water close by me (pool, ocean) when it's like this.
Anyways, partly due to the heat I haven't been riding him. The other hald is due to me realizing just how badly my saddle fits. I know I keep saying that but I keep seeing new signs. Most recently I've been able to actually pin point the exact location of the saddle panels on D's back simply by seeing the indentions it's left in the developing muscle! (and this is without him being saddled for 2 weeks)Iiick.
Anyways, so ground work it is. I love my new longe line ^__^ (lightweight, cotton round, small clip) and I take him out on it freaquently. It gives me extra length for sure. Anyways now that I've been able to actually close all the gates in the ring I let him loose in there. The other evening two great things happened in our short, and very molassas like session:
*He immediately decided, it was fine to walk around the arena with me despite being completely free. I started walking along the rail after ;etting him go and putting my equipment on the mounting block. He decided to follow suit and pretty soon he was plodding after me. We made it around to the otherside of the ring where the view drops off over the vast back pasture where the deer like to gather in the evenings. There was nothing there this time but he stopped and stood, watching, smelling. I kept walking and walked about 20 feet over to the fence and stood there looking out over the same area he was, breifly showing interest. He faltered for a second, staring at the pasture, then his eyes flicked to me and his weight started to fall in on his inside leg like he was thinking of following me. His attention stayed on the field but I started walking around the rest of the arena and within a few more seconds he started to follow again and a ploddy pace. Needless to say I was impressed and highly excited. He followed me around the barrels in the middle of the ring as well.
*He left grass to follow me. ^_^
He's VERY fixated on food. Since he's come here he's done nothing but eat, like it's his last meal. =/ I guess being off of pasture for almost 10 years does that to a horse, poor guy. The point is though, that the ring has grass growing up through the sand. D discovered this after some hesitation and instead of walking up to him and insisting he stop eating I watched. He eyed me, took a few bites, decided it was good and moved to the next patch or so of green stuff. I was frustrated, I've always hated it when the grazing takes up time I want to be spending with us actually communicating. I drummed my fingers on the barrel and bit and looked off elsewhere trying not to make eye contact, although I did mentally think "I really wish you'd stop eating right now, you can do that when I turn you back out in a few minutes." After watching him move from clump to clump I asked "Don't you want to come over here and do something?" He acknoledged me with an ear and eye and then looked up, directly at me, head at about his chest level. He bent down and took another snif of the grass, decided he was disinterested and plodded over to me. I stood there in shock, his very earnest, although not entirely enthusiastic expression was burned into my brain. O.o he just left grass to come see me! WOW We spent a minute communing at the barrel. I'm really hoping now he gets the idea that the barrels are objects for play, but he hasn't yet. He's close though... as we were standing there he took a sniff and put his lips over the rim of the barrel before loosing interest. I was alittle dissapointed. In the old days that would have immediately been followed by him either picking the barrel up by his teeth, chewing it to death or knocking it on the ground, pinning his ears and dancing off. I miss that side of him and that's my whole goal: to get it back. Right now I'm just trying to show him I won't freak out if he messes with stuff.
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