Goal of the day: Hanging out in the pasture and hanging off of her!

So picked her up this morning, first thing was that she was way back in the tree’s, she has 20 acres, so it took about five min of calling before I heard her coming up the trail and she got her carrot this morning, and after we got her on the main trial, I took a side trail with her in the bush and then brought her over to my farm. We did the regular (I’m not going to write it out each time, regular means, groomed, sprayed for the bugs, feet checked )

And then out to the pasture we went, this time my first goal was quite different, it was not to spend time walking with her or even really interacting with her, unless she choose to make that happen, I took my chair, my book and walked with her following to the shade of one of the big pasture tree’s and plunked myself down, there is good grazing to had there and that is just what she settled down to do..  about every 15 min or so, I would look up, smile, call her like I will if she is in the pasture which has been decided on as “Hey!! Brandy Girl!” and she would look up, come over, get a small apple and a pat and good girl and then back to my book I went, and back to grazing she went..  I wanted to see how far she would go and I had planned on when she got to 20 feet today (will work up to 30) feet to call her back and have her check in with me..

The purpose of this game is that as a trail horse, she needs to learn that just because I am off her and not working with her, does not mean that she should not stick around, yes, feel free to graze, yes, you are “loose” but I might need you at any time, so keep an eye on me.

This was an amazing success! She never left the 15 foot mark, she just grazed around me the whole time, and she responded with interest and was content.

Now I have come into the house, but on the hour, I head back out with a small apple and call her to where the hay feeder and the water bucket is, and when she comes from down by the barn up to there, she gets a handful of fresh greens, a apple and some love.. I want her to know I have not forgotten that she is there, and to continue the calling come to me training!

This afternoons training is quite different, I am heavy (as in well over 200 pds overweight, even with my weight loss to date over the so called perfect ideal weight, but for my own goals, I am still 130 pds over where I want to be) and that means that getting up on a horse is a issue, I need help, so my goal is to start teaching Brandy three things

a)to learn to walk up close to where I am going to mount, and that could be anything, a step, a ditch, a tree log etc.. Anything that will give me a leg up! So today I am using my big cement topped cistern down back by the Big Barn in the small Pasture, its a perfect first learning tool, as its easy to walk up on the long sides, but has the shorter sides for more challange

b) she needs to learn to stand perfectly still for me pressed up beside the mounting aid

So the work means leading her up and getting her to stand while I lay over her back and just hang my weight on her.. sounds simple but its really alot of baby steps to get it to work perfectly..

Dh had already built me a hitching post at the big barn for when I was working with girl, so that was a blessing.

While she is easy enough to lead up to the mounting block, she does not like to swing her rear in, this required me, getting off the block, pushing her rear in, keeping her in a stand, and then getting back up and then hanging over her back.. No issues at about laying over her..

So we got off and instead of working on the block itself, we did different commands on the ground, whoa, stands, backs, walk arounds and then I used the fence to walk her up into the same postion and then used over to get her back end to swing in. Ended with me walking her over into the back of the barn to show her the lean to area..

Thanks it for the day, other then checks and pats, that is more then enough for her to get her horse head around and its coming on the heat of the day, I want her to rest, graze and just hang out getting use to the sheep/cows.  I might do one more small 10 or 20 min something this evening with her.. but it will just be a repeat of this afternoon but with a different mounting block etc.

Goals of the day:  Stay with me- Success

: Mounting Block- working Progress

: Standing Still- Success, she understands what Stand means..