Musical coffee!

I'm back!!!

This blog thing is hard! I just don't know where to start. I have been playing with Honey, but haven't got to write what I have done each day, so feel I have to go back to the start, so then it gets too hard, so then I don't write anything.

So today I am just going to write SOMETHING!

I thought I would start with something nice that happened this morning...

In a rare occurence around here, Pete and I were both out playing with our own horses, at the same time. That in itself is a rare thing. I have decided I better do some liberty with Ruby, but Pete and Ripley had beat me to the round yard.

I went inside and made a coffee, collected Ruby, and headed around to wait in line. I decided Ruby had had enough un-demanding time, so I hopped on and started riding the outside rail, practicing our freestyle riding outside the safety of the yard. Pete then got on Ripley bareback and bridless too, so he started riding the inside rail.

I had sat the coffee on a post. We were both quietly doing our own thing, focused on our own horses, then one of us would ride past, pick up the coffee, drink for a few posts, put it down, the other would ride past, pick it up, drink as we rode, deposit it on another post. It was funny. A bit of a dance really. Two quiet, focused, freestyle riders sharing a space, but off in their own worlds! I wish I had it on video.

But aside from the trivialties, I had a productive little play with Ruby. I have decided I need to lift her life in our liberty play. I have been tip toeing around, trying to do things nicely, quietly, calmly. And she has been doing things nicely, quietly and calmly, but apparently not responsively enough. So today I decided I was going to get out of my box and experiment! Being the introverted little butterfly that she is, we started very slowly and gently, then as we progressed, we lifted our life, and played some tag, and got some maintained canter even!!! She missed the hind end on her changes a few times, but at this stage I wasn't worried about that, I was just after energy, when I asked for it! And boy, did all that driving improve her draw! She was asking with two ears to come in, PLEASE! It was cool. Not pretty, but progress.

Pete brought me out some lunch so I went over and sat on the gate, and she straight away sidepassed over for me to get on. I let her stand there while I ate, then for fun I thought I would see if I could send her, from where I was sitting on the gate, to go and try something, even have a roll because she was sweaty. She side passed about 8 metres, then still wondering what I wanted she walked off and found a cone over the other side of the round yard, played with it for a second, then looked over to me to ask if that was what I was thinking about. I wasn't expencting ANYTHING, so, still from sitting on the gate, I said sure, that was great, come back, which she did, and was rewarded with some corn chips! It seems trivial, but I thought that was a nice little problem solving excersise. She could have just left!

I called it a day in the round yard at that, and to further improve her obedience asked her to stand on a piece of rubber outside the shed while I went in and mixed up the feeds. She got off a couple of times, and I went back out and put her back on. She soon got the idea and waited on the rubber until I had finished the feeds and brought hers out. Cool. It was also hard for her too because she couldn't see where I had disapeared to in the shed. She just had to trust that I would come back!

So there. A little update on what I have been up to! I have waffled on for long enough, so I am off now to plan what horsey manouvres I will be up to tomorow!

Nite all...