Ok so today was an interesting day. First off I have been letting Gully be a horse as this exam is consuming a lot of my time and its not fair to him to be all by himself and me not even coming out to see him. He has been in the field with the other horses. He was easy to catch once I got to him. WAY across the feild and through 2 swamps KNEE DEEP in gross swamp water ( thank god I brought extra shoes)
Plan A is to try and incoperate as much natural horsemanship into Gully's training as possible. of course if i can not achieve the results I am looking for I will move to other methods I have learnt. I also think I need to work on a standard format for these blog entries to allow me to access information quickly and easily.
Today was a simple exercice - essentially the goal was to be able to touch his entire body and lift all four feet with out him being afraid or moving away from me.
I put him out on the fence which he quickly figured out I was in control of his direction and his speed ( he was to stay at a canter ) Every 4 rounds I would ask for him to stop. The stop at first was sloppy and half the time it became a turn the other half he completely faced me. Eventually I got a very good stop stand at the fence and turn his head towards me. This is where I wanted him.
at this point he stood for only a few minutes before he lost intersted and moved away from me. I put him on the fence again.
A few things I noted in this session - he will turn inside,m this is something I have NEVER been able to get a horse to do. I just wish I knew what was prompting it so I knew how to ask for it.
We played the stop game a bit more and eventually he got the point if he stopped on the fence and didnt move he DIDNT have to work. At this point he stayed completely still while I rubbed him all over down his legs played with his tail. I then picked up both his front feet only for a few seconds ensuring I put them down before he asked me to. I moved onto his back legs picking each one of the ground and back down right away.
Now here is where I found myself wishing I had a nice strong steel fence like at college and I could tie Gully up and do things waynes way. ITS SO MUCH FASTER.
But lacking any where to tie him that he wont possibly pull back and break means I will simply have to do as much as I can using Parali Chris Irwin and John Lyons as my guide.
By the end I was rubbing fly spray on him he didnt like it but was quick to remeber standing still meant no fence work which meant he could breathe easy.
Fully brushed and fly sprayed I turned him back out to the field
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