Training update

Today i have been doing quite a lot. Mostly deciding stuff.

First, i decided today was the day to finally work on crunches with Ronja. I have been constantly making excuses as I have been scared to make any negative associations with it. But now i finally started.

She did very well! We just worked on getting her weight slightly back. I'm very pleased with the location i picked, as it made it super easy for her to do it, so i was constantly rewarding her. Can't wait to continue with this.

After deciding to do that (but before actually doing it) i also decided to give riding Ditte a try, since mom seems to like her less when she don't behave with a rider on. So i went to the pasture, threw a neck rope on the pony and jumped on. Since she was just standing happily, i clicked and gave her some grass.

Fun fact: she like grass from my hands more than the exact same grass from the ground.

Next time i got on she was thinking about biting my leg, so i was holding the click. This made her frustated, so she began walking off and I jumped off her before she got more annoyed and decided to throw me.

Now i had a small problem, but soon found a solution. I took the neck rope off, clicked her for some smiles, then put it on and (tried) to jump on again. Apparently my ability to mount bareback is as easily destroyed as my confidence.

Eventually i did it though. She was standing nice and happy through it all, so every time she stayed like that when i attempted get on she got a click and some grass.

As I got fully on i jumped off again, clicking as I did, so i could give the grass from the ground beside her. This meant no more frustrated biting at my legs. I'm happy we managed to solve it before it turned into not wanting to be ridden.

When i was about to give Fussi his evening feed, i made another decision. I would start working on this with him too. I got the idea as I saw him smelling the plastic bag attached to my lunge whip.

I started just with target training today to be sure he get that click=food (and training=all my attention and love, because he want that more than the food). I don't know what to work on tomorrow really. I would like to do it in walk, as he's quite old and need farrier (coming monday) but I also want it to be something else than just basic follow, back up and such things, as he already know how to do it. Any ideas?