Thursday, October 1, 2009

Squeeze and Sideways with Tina

Tonight, I wanted to build more sideways and squeeze game patterns with Tina. I started with asking her to go sideways over an obstacle. It's obvious that she's never done sideways or sidepassing. She was able to take small steps sideways over an obstacle, but she really wasn't comfortable going sideways so we have some work to do.

We continued to build those 2 games and by the end of the session, she was licking and chewing and giving some nice sideways with hinds and fores crossing. Squeeze is tough because the horse can get scared when they can't go forward. I was looking for relaxation and Tina not wishing to go forward and leave. She had learned that she could find the answer and forward wasn't it. Her answer is typically forward, which is very natural for a prey animal so I'm trying to build a more confident and inquisitive mind in her. I want to try other answers besides forward.

After our ground session, I spent some more time shaping up her feet. The left fore is extremely flat, so I'm trying to lift the sole and build the solar dome. The right hand is the nicest, for whatever reason. Things are coming along. She's getting lots of good concussion on the track and her hoof wall grows stong.

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