On Thursday the wheel bearing in our mini-van got so bad that it was unsafe to drive. Driving an hour to the barn and back was a no-no. So I didn't see Gambler until tonight. And today I was on my way back from an Austen-movie marathon with friends, completely unaware that I was going straight to the barn afterwards. This meant that I didn't have the camera, and thus, have no pictures to show you. I did, however, have a productive evening with Gambler.
When I got to the barn we rushed to throw hay down from the loft before the sun went down. Those hay bales are heavy. The summer I worked at Galloping Hills I gained so much muscle from carrying hale bales and water. I'm hoping that over the winter I can build some of that muscle up again. After we had the hay down, we brought the horses in to give them their grain. I couldn't do anything with Gambler in the arena because the sun had gone down, but there was plenty to do in the cross-ties.
I picked up Gambler's front feet while mom was doing some stuff in town. He was bad, mostly because I didn't want to back him up in the barn aisle. He never kicked at me and I did pick out both of his front feet. All he did was kick his right foot free once and then try to kick free a second time. So while he was "bad" he was much better than he has been. I meant to pick out his back feet when Mom got back, so that she could hold him and back him up if needed, but I forgot.
Then I played the friendly game with the girth of the bareback pad. Gambler fidgeted a bit, but he didn't grunt once. I just lightly tossed the girth onto his back, pulled it off, and tossed it up again. I did this to his withers, back, rump, and his belly where the girth normally goes. When he licked and chewed, or cocked a back leg in relaxation, I praised him and repeated the exercise on the other side.
Then I did the same exercise with the bareback pad itself. Then I left the bareback pad on and repeated the exercise with the girth while the bareback pad was on his back. Finally, I put the girth on so loosely that it barely skimmed his stomach.
While watching the Parelli colt starting DVD series, I picked up a neat tip that I tried out today. Parelli suggested that when tightening the cinch you press down on the horse's withers harder than you are pulling on the girth. I tried it out and it works very well. The horse is distracted by the pressure on on his withers and doesn't react as strongly to the pressure of the girth.
Then we let the horses back out to pasture to eat their hay. I love Gambler's stall manners so much. He is one of the most respectful horses I know. Granted, he still has his days when he thinks he's a stud and all respect for my space flies out the window, but on most occasions he is very respectful. For instance, today I opened his stall door, told him "whoa" and stood in the door of his stall. He stood there calmly and quietly until I stepped out of the way and let him out. There are many horses (including Gambler a few months ago) who I would never stand in front of while letting them out of their stall. It's a good way to get run over. But Gambler has gotten to the point that I can trust him to respect my space. Now if I can just get him to let me pick up his feet and sit on his back!
Since I don't have any new pictures, here are a few old ones.
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| This pictures was taken just a few days after Gambler re-discovered the art of longeing. It took me a long time to teach him my version, a mixture of traditional longeing and the Parelli Circling Game. |
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| Check out the collection! Why doesn't he do this anymore? |
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| Funny how he had no issue with the girth the first time I put it on him. |
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