Step 1: The Friendly Game

Well, our lesson was cancelled on Saturday, but we got it today! We're learning the Parelli style of natural horsemanship, and the first step was mastering the friendly game, which basically involved getting Dee to be ok with having a big orange stick rubbed all over her. She pretty much passed that with flying colors, since she could care less, for the most part.






We also worked on something called the Porcupine Game, which is basically teaching her to move away from pressure (either with a hand or the stick). That one wasn't so easy to master, and in fact, we have some homework to do. When Diane first put pressure on her by pushing Dee's shoulder, Dee's response was to try biting Diane. It did get better from there, though. By the time I took the lead, Dee was at least semi-understanding the concept of going AWAY from pressure rather than pushing AGAINST it.





That was most of what we worked on. Diane also worked on trying to get her to back up (by flicking the lead), but that's got a LONG way to go. Mostly, Dee would either put her head up as high as it could go or try to run off. Eventually she'd try to head backwards, but she never figured out that going backwards was what we really WANTED. Oh well. I plan on working on these games through the week and hopefully we'll get to some new ones at out next lesson!

Natural Horsemanship

When I was a working student in MA, a woman came once a week to work with me and Scudder, the youngster, on natural horsemanship-type stuff. Now, I don't know what type it was... we used a rope halter and the ground work VASTLY improved Scud's manners, that's all I know. SO, when one of the girls in my senior seminar class asked me if she could use Dee and I as subjects for her senior project on Natural Horsemanship, I leapt at the chance.
We get our first lesson this weekend, and I'm pretty excited about it. I think it will be a great thing for me and Dee to work on together! Our "lesson" is Saturday, so I'll make sure to update! Maybe I can even convince megan to come up with me and take pictures.

On a side note, I wish I had my camera with me yesterday, because Dee was SO SUPER SHINY I couldn't believe it. I guess the Ultimate Finish is making her pretty glossy, but she doesn't seem to like eating it, so I'm thinking of switching her to Max-E-Glo rice bran, instead. It will offer the same results without the weird coco flavor that I think Dee is none to thrilled with. I do LIKE UF, and I think Buckeye is a great feed, so I don't want to take her off of the gro n' win, but I think I need something that she LIKES to eat to supplement the gnw with. They do have a UF powder, but I can't really imagine that it would taste much difference, and the powder is more expensive, so if she hates it, that's a lot of money down the tube.