Can you??

Nina and I, Chrissy and Lakota.

I ended up working late, still on the phone at 6pm. Unusual for a Friday night and I was anxious to get some horses going. I came out to the barn, thinking to play with Nina and maybe put another ride on her. I got her haltered and started tacking her up. Chrissy was looking for a little coaching, so I thought I'd use Nina to show how I'd get things done and talk to Chrissy while I played.

We started with squeezing over the barrels. Nina wasn't too sure, but she tried her heart out. She put her hoof on, hung her head over, really tried to figure out what would make me happiest. Once she stopped trying, I would send her around the 1/2 circle to try on the other side. We did that for a few minutes and the first time she jumped, I sighed, cocked a leg and stroked her face. Then we walked away.

Chrissy gave it a try with her horse and had him squeezing over pretty quickly. She's still figuring out how to use phases and how to motivate him to go forward the speed she's asked.

We then played "Can You", a game where one leads, does something with their horse and the other then tries it. We played with left front over a log, back legs only on a bridge, figure 8, and back over the barrels. Chrissy had a little bit of trouble with figure 8 and I tried to help her keep her horse moving. He's not very motivated at times and she can keep working on having a plan in her head before beginning to execute.

Nina did a great job with the figure 8, she was jumping the barrels with ease on the first ask by the end of the session and our communication was improving rapidly.

It was getting dark and it was time to go in. I didn't get to ride Nina, but it was good to tack her up, practice some ground work and never get on. She's coming along very nicely.