Wizard Ride #24… Click-Click

Thursday 12/18/08

I had the day off of work and I brought my mom out to the barn for my ride. I tacked up and worked Wizard indoors. Worked on a lot of clicker groundwork with Wizard. I set up some obstacles with jump poles and standards, including a square, ground poles on a curve, half a cross rail jump, and an L-shaped chute. Wizard did his targeting commands very well and negotiated all of the obstacles in hand, including hopping over the itty bitty half cross rail. We also worked on walking into the box, doing a quarter turn, and walking out. Wizard was a little more demanding about his carrots so I will need to work on a “head away” cue to combat any problems with him mugging for treats. He’s a gentle horse and I cannot imagine him hurting anybody on purpose but I also don’t want him to learn any bad habits :^)

After our clicker training session, we did a few minutes of longeing, followed by a short ride. During our ride, I introduced him to the idea of doing the quarter turn in the box under saddle. He did it very well both ways but seemed more responsive when he was turning a quarter turn right than when he turned left. We also did a little bit of trotting again. Wizard felt good. He did a little fussing with his head and I did my best to keep my hands steady and quiet. At the end of our ride, I asked Wizard to halt at the far end of the ring. When we stopped, I inadvertently took a big sigh and was amused to hear Wizard sigh immediately after me. Monkey see, monkey do!

After our ride, I turned him loose in the arena and he trotted in a longeing circle without a line like a little circus pony! Whenever I say, “Good Boy”, he always halts and walks toward me, even at liberty.