Weigh-in day was a day late this week, but the tape this morning was right on the top of the 498kg band, which I'm happy with. I've had a nice horsey Boxing day - this morning I spent an hour gently working through his mane and tail with a comb. His mane still looks like a bad David Bowie wig, but at least the dreadlocks are gone. Then this afternoon I'd planned to go and poop scoop the bottom field, but the wind was so strong it snatched the shovel out of my hands and flung it half way across the field, so I abandoned that idea and went and had half an hour of scritchies in the shelter instead.
I asked for Kelly Marks' Perfect Manners and Perfect Confidence for Christmas. I've read Perfect Manners today and it's made me realise that we've made some quite large steps forward this year - a lot of the exercises that she recommends are things we do now that he wouldn't do at the beginning of the year, like respecting my personal space, moving his feet when asked, yielding to pressure and so on.
I've been thinking that it might be an idea to do some long reining and work in hand to gently start building up his muscles rather than just plonking a saddle plus 10 stone of me on top, so I've got the two in-hand schooling books by Hinrichs and Hilberger on order from Amazon as well as the new Enlightened Equitation book. The idea is that we can walk down to the beach, which will give his feet some road time (they're going to need a trim next month unless I start getting some tarmac miles in), do a little bit of work on the sand and then walk back home, gradually increasing the length of time I ask him to work - and if I can eventually long rein him down and back then I *hope* that will translate to less/no napping when I try hacking out again.
It's a good theory...
No comments:
Post a Comment