Well after a busy (and enjoyable) day, I thought we were too tired to do horse work as well. But then, being up there, being with them, all of a sudden the tiredness goes away. It was so peaceful up at the agistment, in the late afternoon, after a showery day but no rain at the time, and nobody around but us and a bunch of horses. Oh and two dogs (Xia and Pickle: Kelpie and Border Collie, respectively).
The first thing was to see Wart and how he was. Happily, he is settling down. He was with Banjo the Clydesdale, both near the gate, but there were no more hoof track marks along the fence, so that means that Wart was not pacing any more. He looked more relaxed overall and happily ate his food.
We then went to the paddock that has Orion and Darcie in it. They were together and both came cantering up to us when we called them. Darcie is starting to look like a tame horse, with regular brushing, and her thick mane and tail looking nice.
So the horses were out and had eaten and were groomed and I asked Ellie, do you want to do more or will we put them back? She decided she would ride bareback with the headcollar for a bit and so I did some training with Darcie.
We are getting better at all the things. Not perfect yet. But we are starting to work together more smoothly. We added flexing the head and neck. We've done that before but not for a while, and we need to get better at that.
We also did some more of the putting head down exercise. She's starting to get that.
Overall everything is getting more relaxed, but she's responsive. As we work out our cues and understand each other even better, it can only get better. It's like we are developing our communication, and our relationship. I like the relaxed way that things are going. Calm and responsive. It's nice to stand there rubbing her over the head, stroking her forelock, rubbing around her eyes and forehead, while she stands there with her head down at about the level of my chest, just all relaxed and enjoying it.
Oh, I did find a "don't touch me there" spot. I was rubbing her over with the stick, up between the hind legs and everything, around her head, and when I got to her ears she tossed her head up. I can handle her ears totally with my hand, but she didn't like the stick there. So we worked with that for a bit. She's not completely relaxed with it yet, but she's not tossing her head any more.
When we took them back out to the paddock, because we have been getting better at Darcie's head dropping on cue, I was able to ask Darcie to drop her head to take the halter off. So that was a good thing.
It was a good day. :D
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