America

America
Salt Wells, Wyoming Mustang Mare

Saturday, June 9, 2012

The Delicate Zone - Oh My!!

Interesting development in playing with America and the friendly game. She's generally confident of me touching her everywhere including her udder (which she LOVES getting cleaned). The one no-no spot for her is under her tail; no matter how much rubbing and caressing of her butt and tail, she would clamp her tail down if I tried to touch her ever so delicate zone. Well, after playing tonight, I fed her then began playing with her tail. She actually relaxed her tail and allowed me to lift it and touch her ever so gently on the under side of her tail, then changed her mind and swished her tail a few times. I asked again, politely and yeah...she lifted her tail again and allowed me to touch the underside of her tail again, this time without any tail swishing. I retreated before she could change her mind!!

I know Pat checks ears and tails to see how relaxed a horse is...I think America was pretty relaxed and I'm pleased!!

Saturday, June 2, 2012

Softness and Flow...

Played online, liberty, and freestyle tonght. Onlne we played with a bit of stick to me and figure 8's...it went well, America even stayed with me when I picked up the trot (my energy, not me actually trotting). I even tried a few quick/sharp turns and she looked for and caught up to me putting herself shoulder to shoulder!

At liberty, played with figure 8's and being particular about the drive and draw. We had fun with this and America ended up being able to walk calmly through the center and drawing around the cones without me having to partially disengage her hq to get the draw.

Freestyle...continued to work on FTR at walk, trot, and canter. America is doing very well to the right but the left continues to be a bit diffcult for her. I'm trying to decide if it's physical, emotional, or dominance. It seems more dominance related but I'll check out the other possibilities before coming to any conclusions. America eventually did travel to the left and was soft at the walk and trot...canter was still a bit impulsive. When playing online, going to the left is the direction she occasionally cross fires so maybe there's an issue there? She usually sorts herself out after a few strides so I'm thinking it may be more fitness or just learning related?

Played with some changes of direction and figure 8's freestyle and after a few minutes, it was looking very nice...actually flowing...nice softness!!