Gem and the Babes

Figure 8 with Gem - waiting for him to take responsibility!
I've been getting picked on with instructors lately for spoon-feeding my horses. I need to keep building up their responsibility to maintain gait and direction. I also need to continue building the power to think in my horses. They need to continue solving puzzles, even if they're level 4 horses. This is something I need to work on for myself as a horse trainer of advanced horses. This is less important for the young horses.

I decided to move the babes into the arena for the night. I don't like them in runs, but I'm not comfortable with them in the herd. I also wanted to make sure I could catch them again once I put them out in a big area. I put Reka in first and she jumped and bucked and kicked and... she needed that. She was so darn cute. I put M in with her and he was pretty low energy. He's not a wild moving horse on his own.

It was nice to hang with them in the arena a bit and ask nothing of them. They both wanted scratching and hung around in between nibbling on the weeds under the fence rail. M's biting behavior is gone at this point, so I reward him with time scratching him all over. He's learned some good things about respecting my space.