Seriously, if I didn't have to write the date in class today I would've sworn it was April! Such gorgeous day, the air smelt like spring and there was a warmness that even the nicer days this past month didn't have. The footing was a bit like fresh brownie batter, since the snow is all melted off, but we managed just fine.
We took advantage of the weather and worked on everything for a little while today. Lunging, leading, catching/coming, standing tied, sacking out, and we played with cavaletti some more. I found one that also converts to a ground pole, so we worked with that while leading as well.
We both worked up a decent sweat in today's session, as I was often running right along side of Rain while we were doing free lunging, trying to get our bodies synced up. We actually got pretty close!
I was greeted today with a quiet whinny for the first time, and even though I know she was probably just excited to get her grain, but I still felt loved. She's getting much better at greeting me, she'll walk in towards me when I enter her paddock and/or the roundpen, and after I give her a treat allow me to catch her with little or no trouble.
We started off with a warmup of lunging and then I went and got the cavaletti. Since it was a different one than we had been using, Rain had to investigate it before she'd go over it, but warmed up to it even easier than the first one. Every few laps we'd switch directions, to make sure we were getting an equal workout on both sides. Then every few switches I'd call her in, catch her, and we'd do some leading exercises. --Just what we've been doing, walk, whoah, back, turn, etc.
After doing that for maybe forty five minutes or so, we switched to a stand tied/sacking out alternation, which also went really pretty well! The newbies were especially fiesty today, so that caused a few difficulties, but the more Rain is learning to give to pressure the easier it was for both of us. We eventually got today to where I can touch Rain anywhere with the stick, and even if she tenses up or puts her ears back, she at least stands still. That's major progress.
This weekend should bring about a great deal of progress, especially if the weather stays like this!
We took advantage of the weather and worked on everything for a little while today. Lunging, leading, catching/coming, standing tied, sacking out, and we played with cavaletti some more. I found one that also converts to a ground pole, so we worked with that while leading as well.
We both worked up a decent sweat in today's session, as I was often running right along side of Rain while we were doing free lunging, trying to get our bodies synced up. We actually got pretty close!
I was greeted today with a quiet whinny for the first time, and even though I know she was probably just excited to get her grain, but I still felt loved. She's getting much better at greeting me, she'll walk in towards me when I enter her paddock and/or the roundpen, and after I give her a treat allow me to catch her with little or no trouble.
We started off with a warmup of lunging and then I went and got the cavaletti. Since it was a different one than we had been using, Rain had to investigate it before she'd go over it, but warmed up to it even easier than the first one. Every few laps we'd switch directions, to make sure we were getting an equal workout on both sides. Then every few switches I'd call her in, catch her, and we'd do some leading exercises. --Just what we've been doing, walk, whoah, back, turn, etc.
After doing that for maybe forty five minutes or so, we switched to a stand tied/sacking out alternation, which also went really pretty well! The newbies were especially fiesty today, so that caused a few difficulties, but the more Rain is learning to give to pressure the easier it was for both of us. We eventually got today to where I can touch Rain anywhere with the stick, and even if she tenses up or puts her ears back, she at least stands still. That's major progress.
This weekend should bring about a great deal of progress, especially if the weather stays like this!
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