Monday, December 7, 2009

playing in the cold

Nothing like a bit of cold weather to get your horse sense going! I have been itching to ride for a few days now but haven't had the time due to work on the rental we have, so when I could snatch a few moments this evening I took them. I didnt' want to get Jake all sweaty, just a little fun and workout with the lariat. So I put the halter on and brushed him down and worked him a little on the basic components then unhitched my lariat and swung that around him several times on both sides. He is not ready to rope off of yet. But then I bridled him and just hung on to the coiled rope. He wasn't too comfortable with that so I kept at it. It's one thing to to rub the rope on him while at a standstill, but get his feet moving and that is another story. He decided it was time to move a little faster as I rubbed the rope on his rump and my leg and his neck so I just kept him moving and just controlled where his feet went. This was good practice for me too as I was trying mainly to use my leg and seat to control his direction, but had to use the rein alot. We stopped and backed up and disengaged. I switched sides with the rope and we started again. After a few minutes of moving around I would let him stop and rest. It was quit fun, but if your gonna do it with your horse just be safe. You get the lariat tangled up on him and your in for a rodeo. Anyway I figured that was enough of that so I hung up the rope and rode off. I played with him on leg yields, 1/2 pass, stop and back ups with just my seat and so on. Well I am always looking for something to do so since Raven was minding her own business in the same pen with us I decided I would round pen her from atop ole Jake. The thing you gotta know is that Jake is low man on the totem pole between the two of them so Raven didn't take kindly to me trying to get her to move from atop Jake. And Jake didn't care none for neither. So I had to be on my toes in horse sense. My goal was just to keep Raven moving in the opposite direction she wanted to go and maybe get her to move through to the other paddock. I was trying to not use my rein much and whenever I had to do a movement to get Jake in shape and prepared for that movement first. It was quite fun, moving in a 1/2 pass toward Raven, then swing a shoulder over to go in the direction Raven went. If she loped off we would follow and try to get her headed in the other direction. I know Raven would've rather just been left alone but I was having fun and it gave Jake and me a job to do. I never did get Raven into the other pen we sure did make her move a bunch. I don't think that will do much for Jake's standing with her though. I know there was something going on between them, but I can just hear him making excuses to her that it was all me that was causing the raucus. And if you ask my wife it usually is. LOL
I find that if you give yourself a job to do when you are working with your horse you both get alot more out of it. Come to think of it I bet this works for dogs or kids too.:}
Oh, by the way, you know what? As cold as it was, I didn't even get cold.
Stay between the ears!

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