Monday, March 29, 2010

Space the final frontier

Once upon a time, leading Sincere was fairly easy. The emphasis then was go forward and stop. It didn't really matter that he crowded, or pulled or a number of other things, the important part was he lead where I needed him to go.

Yesterday, he began to encounter what's to be expected on the triangle.

I haven't done basic triangle work in about six years, let alone with a foal. I'm lucky that he sets up perfectly every time, if he doesn't he's easy to get into position.

But there are a few issues as well, he's now using his size to barge past me, and because he's forward and big, he can now move quicker than my butt can move. Because he's young, he's also excitable and because he's friendly he wants to crowd. And turning? Non existent.

So we spent the majority of an afternoon correcting the barging issue. Rule one: don't lean on the halter. Rule two: stop when I stop, go when I go, turn when I turn. Rule three: I control the pace.

It took a little while, but when rule one was figured out, rules two and three were easy. By the end of it, he got the concept. We may have an in hand pony yet.

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