Today I had the whole afternoon with my horses! My sons are staying with grandparents and my husband was also away so I spent some extra time with my curlies!
I set up some stuff for the obstacles and then brushed Suri first. I had bought some pool noodles but have not have time to make an obstacle with them so I just used them to get her used to the noodles as they are first. This was fine. I brushed her all over with the noodle and tapped her whole body with it. She was great. Then I went to the boxes. I had put several boxes on the ground and walked along and inbetween them with Suri while asking her to sniff and look at all of them. This was no problem at all. Then I put the pool noodle onto two boxes as a stepp over and led Suri over this. She was great. She did knowck it over a few times because it is so light it moves easily but she was very carefull.
Then I went to the tractor tire I put there. She was a bit exited and hesitant but then wanted to step into it but when she hesitated and pulled her foot back up it got stuck under the edge and she got scared and pulled the tire backwards with her until it came loose. We both got a scare and I was upset with myself for asking her to do this obstacle that turned out to scare her even while she was trying so well. I decided to skip this one from now on but I did get her back to the tire and do some other things with it. I used the tire as a drum, making lots of noise while she stood there with me. I walked over the tire and had her walk next to me and we walked inbetween the tires standing up and the one lying down several times until she was relaxed and convinced that they would not just jump and grab her foot:)
I think we ended the exercise well anyway but it was not the best exercise for us. I rewarded her and gave her her feed.
With Voelie I just had a really nice long grooming session. She is having trouble getting her wintercoat off so she doesn't look her best now. I am giving her some extra linseed so I hope it will, togteher with the extra grooming, help her get rid of her wintercoat.
Here are some pictures of today:
Checking out the pool noodle
Standing inbetween two of the boxes and immediately when I picked up the camera she grabbed some food:) LOL
Our improvised step over.
Here she is checking out the tractor tire, you can see me in the shadow:)
Jessica, GREAT JOB improvising with the tire!! Be sure to count that as points! I am glad you played it safe and did what you COULD do with it, rather than push. Very smart and good thinking. At a cowboy challenge we had, they filled these huge tractor tires with sand....so they had to step UP on them rather than in them. That might be something to try too. Glad you had such a nice day and thank you for sharing!
ReplyDeleteYes, great job working with the tire and with all the other obstacles, building a relationship with your Curly. :)
ReplyDeleteThank you Denise, filling the tire with sand is a great tip and I will definately try this out! I think there are enough challenges to keep me going all year so I will definately also continue with the challenges after april because it's fun to do!
ReplyDeleteJessica,
ReplyDeleteHaha, your Curlies must be related to mine. Always on the look out for goodies{:>
Angie