Should have done this ages ago...
I know I've been slack and not updated here for ages. I'd like to claim I'm far too busy, but I'm probably just lazy!
I had a birthday last Wednesday. There was a lot of cake and chocolate and it turns out being 36 isn't quite so bad after all. I snuck out of work a bit early and played with my pony - just a bit of groundwork in the school. He's funny, he find it all so stressful if he has a saddle on, but the same stuff without is so easy for him. Poor boy, I wish I knew what had happened to make saddles so scary. At the end I let him off to see what would happen if he was loose. He was like a little fluffy shadow, his nose glued to my elbow, turning and trotting with me really nicely.
Friday it was gorgeously sunny so I bunked off early again so I could take him for a riot on the common. He was very quiet and calm leaving the yard, very quiet and calm when we got to the common and then we reached the hill he sometimes gets to canter up and he found springs! He bounced for a few strides until I let him go forward (he's such a sweetie, he won't go until I tell him he can!) and he flew up the hill. I'd forgotten how fast he is and how much he really powers from behind - he was having so much fun i was laughing aloud! About 2/3 of the way up I spotted the buzzards circling really low just off to my right - not always a good thing when you're belting uphill towards a corner! Once we'd pulled up, Small was so fired up he couldn't stay in walk on the way home, he was finding all sorts of excuses to trot..."look, a blackbird...better trot" , "oh, there's a van half a mile behind us - we should trot to get out of it's way". It's not so easy to stop him when you're laughing that hard!
Yesterday I thought I could maybe do a bit more in the school with Small and see if we can play a little more with him loose. I played a game with Joe to get him more motivated and moving forward - it involved having four blocks up in the school, leaving a treat on the top of each one, and going as fast as we could from treat to treat. It was a lot of fun. I know Small really doesn't need any help with forward, but I thought it might help him see the school as somewhere fun.
He started off thinking I was a bit odd..
It was a total blast! He was having a whale of a time - glued to me, running with me, trotting and cantering when I did.
What really amazed me was just how keen to be with me he was - he stopped for a scratch while I kept running and he did a huge trot to catch me up. I was totally expecting him to need to run round a bit and then zone me out, but how wrong could I have been?! Even more impressively he was happy to let me put a little energy behind him to send him forwards and around me and still stay calm.
We were very lucky to have the helpful glenatron to restock treats and take pictures - less lucky in that most of the pictures he took have Small, me or both looking more than a little special needs - particularly this one:
We've still got a long way to go, but I'm so proud of that pony!
I had a birthday last Wednesday. There was a lot of cake and chocolate and it turns out being 36 isn't quite so bad after all. I snuck out of work a bit early and played with my pony - just a bit of groundwork in the school. He's funny, he find it all so stressful if he has a saddle on, but the same stuff without is so easy for him. Poor boy, I wish I knew what had happened to make saddles so scary. At the end I let him off to see what would happen if he was loose. He was like a little fluffy shadow, his nose glued to my elbow, turning and trotting with me really nicely.
Friday it was gorgeously sunny so I bunked off early again so I could take him for a riot on the common. He was very quiet and calm leaving the yard, very quiet and calm when we got to the common and then we reached the hill he sometimes gets to canter up and he found springs! He bounced for a few strides until I let him go forward (he's such a sweetie, he won't go until I tell him he can!) and he flew up the hill. I'd forgotten how fast he is and how much he really powers from behind - he was having so much fun i was laughing aloud! About 2/3 of the way up I spotted the buzzards circling really low just off to my right - not always a good thing when you're belting uphill towards a corner! Once we'd pulled up, Small was so fired up he couldn't stay in walk on the way home, he was finding all sorts of excuses to trot..."look, a blackbird...better trot" , "oh, there's a van half a mile behind us - we should trot to get out of it's way". It's not so easy to stop him when you're laughing that hard!
Yesterday I thought I could maybe do a bit more in the school with Small and see if we can play a little more with him loose. I played a game with Joe to get him more motivated and moving forward - it involved having four blocks up in the school, leaving a treat on the top of each one, and going as fast as we could from treat to treat. It was a lot of fun. I know Small really doesn't need any help with forward, but I thought it might help him see the school as somewhere fun.
He started off thinking I was a bit odd..
It was a total blast! He was having a whale of a time - glued to me, running with me, trotting and cantering when I did.
What really amazed me was just how keen to be with me he was - he stopped for a scratch while I kept running and he did a huge trot to catch me up. I was totally expecting him to need to run round a bit and then zone me out, but how wrong could I have been?! Even more impressively he was happy to let me put a little energy behind him to send him forwards and around me and still stay calm.
We were very lucky to have the helpful glenatron to restock treats and take pictures - less lucky in that most of the pictures he took have Small, me or both looking more than a little special needs - particularly this one:
We've still got a long way to go, but I'm so proud of that pony!