I've Got A Feeling....

Tenatively I have started to exercise Bea in hand, vets orders.  No tight turns, no turning on the forehand, definitely no jumping, avoid hard ground, a little trotting, say six or so strides, no circles or sideways, also vets orders.  So what do you do with a horse you can do almost nothing with, she stiff on the hind, striding shorter of the right fore sometimes pottery...nightmare.   Then I remembered something I saw at the FOTH something Pat said about having a horse at your shoulder, not behind you and not in front.  You have this then your horse is acting like a partner.  That is what we would play with and we could do it at a walk, with some trot with large sweeping turns.  It didn't take Bea long to figure out what position she ought to be in so that the savvy string didn't flick her.  It also didn't take her long to work out that if she got it right with the right cue word she got to graze on nice grass WITHOUT the grazing muzzle.  We can now do a quick or slow walk, a quick or slow back up, the same with trot and all in less than 48 hours....oh the power of grass!

As for Gemma she is currently playing friendly with the 45ft line.  We spent the afternoon walking around where ever she chose to go with the 45ft dragging behind her.  Normally she would take off as soon as she saw the line at her side not to mention heard it, not anymore.  Even when she got in a tangle she tried to work it out herself, a big thing for Gemma as she would normally hit the panic button.  The look of amazement she gave me when her hind leg was freed by our combined effort was priceless.  It was almost as if the thought had just hit her that staying calm was more comfortable than going into a blind panic.   The icing on our particular cake was circling at the end of the 45ft line at a trot.  Head level with her withers, nice and relaxed licking and chewing as she went.   Gemma loves to circle now its her own way to chill out!   If things get hard to take go for a circle!