A quick visit turns into an enjoyable activity

Before I talk about the horses, I will mention that we bought and installed a new shed ... and now I have a tack shed! Yay! The horse gear is being stored there and not in the back room, on the back verandah, in my car, and diverse other places. Also big dog stuff is in there, like dog crates. It was a bit of a job to put together but not too bad.

It's near the gate to the carport which is really convenient for loading and unloading. And an added benefit is that it improves the privacy from the neighbouring property.

Today we went to the horses on the way back from doing some quick Christmas Eve shopping to fill a couple of "pressie gaps". Just a couple, low stress. I went to the nearby shopping centre as it has an ABC shop. It's a new shopping centre and quite a nice one, not like the run of the mill centres, is more pleasant to be in. And it wasn't too crowded while we were there.

The horses are not far from it so we went straight there afterwards.

Wart doing well in the spelling paddock still. Happy to see us.

Was going to just bring out and feed the other two, and measure Darcie for a new rope halter that's made to actually fit her, but Ellie hopped on Orion bareback and we all went for a walk. Darcie was a wee bit boggly at first but not for long.

With Darcie I practiced leading with her in a good position, and having her respond to me pointing my arm forwards by speeding up. I didn't have a stick with me so just flooped her with the lead rope end if I needed to.

We went to the place where there are some little banks and drop-offs and Ellie was riding Orion up and down them.

I put our "sending exercise" to good use, by sending Darcie up and down them. We started at an easy place and went to a more challenging place. When we got to the challenging place Darcie started to play! She was pigrooting and jumping about a bit in a playful way after jumping up the bank. She didn't look stressed at all - I think she was just having fun.

Oh and I didn't have the stick with me so I just broke off a little bit of a weed that grows kind of straight, and has leaves sticking out of it, looking sort of like a feather duster and about the same size, and used that as an indicator. It was a cue only, never touched her. She knows the exercise pretty well now.

The first couple of times she wanted to keep going around me and do the full circle but I bumped the lead rope a few times to stop her from doing that, and she soon figured it out.

After she did it a few times she found it a bit less exciting and was going up and down in a more sedate way.

We also did a bit of desensitising, just as a part of the whole thing ... a bit of "slap and tap", also getting her used to me jumping up and down beside her - first a bounce with a bit of distance, then jumping, then getting closer - and also having the rope dragging along underfoot - this is something she was worried about the very first time but now she takes little notice.

I would say we didn't do a formal "training session" as such, but did just work things in to our visit, and put some of our learned exercises to use in new environments and with new challenges.

Ellie told me that she wants to teach Orion some groundwork, partly to give him more of a workout as she's seen the lunging exercises particularly gives them some work to do, and Orion is still looking a tad fat. I tried an unused full size rope halter on him and it fits him really well - much better than the off the shelf one I've been using with Darcie fits her. It's purple which Ellie thinks is a bit girlie for Orion and would suit Kallie the Pally, his half sister, better, but they will cope.