Braided Up

English Day for Archie

 I put the braids in so that I don't get caught up in all his hair! It is also nice for temperature regulation. Not that it was really hot today, but he still has a bunch of hair and gets hot pretty easy. 

 

Braids? Are you sure?

 

Oh Fine, just don't tell anyone.

What I liked about today was that the things he was worried about last time did not get the same reaction this time. A look, but not a step back or snort. Now we added a few other things, but that we will do every time. I took pool noodles down to the arena with me and even added a balloon to the end of one. My intention was to play with him all over with the ballooned noodle, but as I got going I thought that I really didn't want  the balloon to pop while right next to him. I may purposely have someone at the other end of the arena pop some, but not right next to him yet. I saw a nice obstacle once that was made of two boards with balloons attached all along set 4 or 5 feet apart to ride through. As we started getting comfy with that folks started walking over the balloons, which naturally got some of them popped!


Once we were riding we had our first 8 foot startle. Meaning he jumped about 8 feet sideways. The tape on the round pen, which is in the arena, wiggled in the breeze. Once he jumped, he stood and tried to figure out what scared him. Within a few minutes it was ok and off we went. I notice that he seems to spook more out of his right eye than left. Which just means we do more work on that side.

We also worked on our walk, trot, walk, halt, back up transitions. Halt is fabulous, back up ok, up to walk good, up to trot not so easy. Probably not a problem on a trail, but we want it to be good all around. He is so sensitive to touch, that just a light tap with the end of the reins got him awake. We want him to be nice and responsive to leg, so we don't want to desensitize that with simple transitions. He was moving forward nicely after a few minutes.