Its Always Darkest Before Dawn...

In my last post I detailed some of the troubles that we cropping up again with the little trouble maker (A.K.A. Teddy). Today I went out after a 3 day long, without a break, rain shower. Those three days were miserable, cold, and wet. We had some minor flooding at the barn under the overhang which required immediate maintenance in the miserable, cold, and wet. However today was a bright sunny 68 degree day, and by golly,
Mom and I took advantage of it. I went out first and played with Woody a bit Online.
I have recently been motivated to invest in some time teaching myself and Woody how to drive from the ground. The first step in the journey is to practice and get both you and the horse acquainted with being in zones 4 and 5. So, that's just what I did. Now, Woody is already confident with me in these zones, don't get me wrong, but it has been a very long time that I have played with him back there.
Before I did this however, I had to halter him. I approached him, rubbed his face, and he walked away. How interesting. My thought process at this moment was that, unlike Teddy and his walking away, Woody's was a, "No thanks, not at the moment," type deal, not an, "I'm too unsure of all this to be haltered." After this assessment I approached again, and this time when I saw him start THINKING about leaving, I stepped in the way to block that thought. We did this several times, and finally he blew hard, licked and chewed, and let me rub him and eventually halter him. How interesting.
We then went outside the gate, him attached to me via the 22' rope. I had my stick and bag, and We just began with a little go button tune up. He is still in the process of believing I mean what I say and I say what I mean. From then on, the session basically consisted of me mainly in zone 4, driving and drawing him to direct him where I wanted to go. I would jog, he would trot, I would walk, he would walk. It was really cool to see how well he is reading my body language and energy. I could even walk bigger and he would give me a big walk.
We did some Touch Its with cones, barrels, and a couple trees all around my yard, but when we got over near the chicken coop he was very distracted and a tad worried. I did some small stuff to get his attention back, but it was really meaningful to him because he would immediately get distracted. Remembering that I had to be effective to be understood and understood to be effective, I got bigger. A couple of "fits" (as Harry Whitney would say), got him back with me for good. He then stood there very calm and had a big yawn release. Must have done something right!
We headed back to the barn practicing walk to trot transitions in zone 4/5, down a hill and up a hill. He did very well and I finished our time together with some carrot stretches (I recently watched the Jim Masterson equine massage method and he talked of three stretches that, done everyday, would make your horse more flexible).

Mom was tacking Charlotte up, so I decided to work on catching Teddy. He was still a bit resistant at first, walking off, but when I saw it coming, I would walk off the other direction first. A couple of times of this, and focusing my energy on only intending to pet him, he let me approach him and stood still for a good long time. I put my arm over his neck and haltered him with no resistance followed by a big sigh. Good sign.
I played with him a bit outside while Mom bridled Charlotte. I played with some desensitizing to the flag. All the stuff that would normally make him wary, he was steady as a rock. Hmmm, interesting. I then asked for some circles, walking, then trotting, then the flag on his rump at a walk and trot, some change of directions, transitions, all of it was GREAT! While he was trotting out calmly, I got a bit bigger and directed some energy at his girth/shoulder. What do ya know? He cantered a bit! He came right back down, too, he didn't get right brained about it. I feel like that was a big moment for him.
We played with some Squeeze Games, too, and the claustrophobic pony squeezed between two tightly together, small pine trees.

Following this, Mom and Charlotte were ready, saddled, and mounted, so we followed them, my dad, Chewy (our dog), and Drew on his bike down the driveway. We played with everything from zone 3 driving walk/trot/halt to cantering on the lead. He was so in tune with me that at one point he was trotting a tad behind my shoulder, I stopped completely and he slid to a stop and looked at me like, "what's next?" He even impressed my dad with his skills. He did a really job today, and I definitely see progress being made.

At one point everyone had left us, and he got a bit nervous about that. I was asking him to turn around me, and the lead rope went toward him and he got worried about it. So I took that opportunity to play with throwing the lead rope on his back and off until he calmed down, got with me, and accepted it. He did, let out a big snort, and we were on our way. It was a great day for all the horses at our house!

~Eden