Tonight was the fourth time I have lunged Cody in side reins. I'm working on rigging up some shims so my saddle doesn't sit low in the front so I have just been doing stuff on the ground lately. He is on the thin side but I figure we can work on building some muscle in his topline to help him fill out. He's doing fairly well, just needs to reach down and forward a bit more, but we're getting there.
A couple weeks ago I was trying to hose him off and he was being a dork, something spooked him and he took off into a field that had an open gate. The rope dragging behind him and sometimes wrapping around a leg was totally freaking him out and he was running mad laps around the field. Once I got him to pay enough attention to stop I tossed the rope at his legs (like I've done a zillion times before) and that was no issue, he just didn't like it wrapping around his legs and/or dragging while he was moving. So...tonight I also clipped an old cotton leadrope to the top ring on the surcingle so that it was dragging along the ground as he trotted around. The first lap he freaked a bit but half stepping in front of him and saying whoa got him to stop for a moment and let his brain settle back into place. After that he trotted around and around with the rope dragging alongside him. He was often at a bit of an angle so he could keep an eye on the evil rope but all in all it went well. I think I'm going to do that a few more times.
I have been terribly lax lately in updating this blog about my goofball of a wild pony, but with all the hopeful changes coming I'm going to try and keep it more up to date :)
Wish us luck in the apartment hunt!
3 comments:
I hope everything works out! That sounds like a wonderful solution.
I should try your dragging rope trick with Scout too. He isn't so much worried about ropes but we've had two incidents where he got something caught on a leg and didn't give up until it broke(the thing of course, not the leg). So roping of legs is definitely in order, very soon.
I'll keep my fingers crossed for you!
Cody will stand there loose and I can toss stuff around his legs when standing still, but when he is moving those same things turn into horse eating monsters. Couple weeks back I was riding him bareback in the arena at a walk and he happened to walk over a lone small branch that tickled his legs so he gave a hop and dart forward and I went thud. Next day I lunged him over branches and he was fine --until I climbed on. Goofy horse. I'm in no big rush with his training so I figure some more getting used to stuff can't hurt :) Lol, have even pondered him dragging the rope with a plastic bag attached...
Good luck gettin Scout all muscled up :) oh, one other thing I am tempted to try while lunging is a piece of equipment called a chambon that helps teach them to reach down and thus use their back. I'm sure you could rig something up with all your rope tying skills if you were interested.
You haven't blogged in a long time--anything new your way?
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