Saturday, February 18, 2017

Ember's Independent Study

Fuzzy Wuzzy...
During January the horses basically had a vacation. So I was not sure what to expect from Ember the first time I took him to the round pen. I was pleasantly surprised to find the defiant baby who got stuck at the gate and another point was not there. He was focused on me and not distracted by what was happening outside the pen.

He also was respecting me by giving inside turns. Which means he turned toward me when he changed directions rather than turning toward the fence. Before I had to work awhile before I got one inside turn. It was amazing to watch him work. I think he took the month to do an independent study of what we taught him. He thought about it and figured out it was not torture.


Trotting by his previous  #1 sticking spot


At times when we started working with him, I thought he was not ready. We did not start working Roscoe until he was a yearling. Goes to show horses definitely have their own way of working sometimes. Ember is such a good boy. 6 days later he did another session with the same focus.

We also began to work on him trotting next to me, which he found to be very weird. Then after the round pen work, Mom helped move him on and off we went. I was good until he relaxed and opened his stride. Let me tell you, my 5'2" legs to not go far when he does that. When I worked him later on by myself, he was able to trot next to me without the additional encouragement. Hopefully I can do him justice in the show ring.

Ember and Roscoe were doing crazy Cob laps today providing us with lots of entertainment. I missed getting the good stuff on camera, but here are a few shots.
Wee! Airborne

Cob turn around

Just before he took off again

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