A Rescued Horse's Tale: We've Come A Long Way (Day 56)!

DAY 56: Right after our visit to Mokelumne River Ranch, the first real rain of the season hit. We had three days of heavy rain. Since we currently do not have access to a covered arena (we are purchasing a pass to the fairgrounds arena, which is covered, this week) we didn’t get any training in. Grrrr. Today the sun poked out and we got to do some work. While Argent was having his hooves trimmed Roscoe and I took to the round pen. We reviewed our previous exercises in quick succession and then moved onto Yielding the Forequarters and Sending. On Yielding the Forequarters, Roscoe was able to get three to four steps on each side. Some minor confusion happens on his right side (he sometimes backs or moves forward before remembering to side step) and on his left side he was a champ. We them formally introduced Sending. Because of the previous ground work we have done Sending came easy during the concept lesson. That is why the Method works so well. It builds on the confidence and experience the horse gains through the previous exercise. It was a short (30 minutes) session but we had some wins so we quit as the plan was to go to the local arena later in the day.

            Arena time! The footing in both arenas was pretty bad. Bog-like in areas and just plan soft/slick in others. Using the rail was pretty much out so the middle was our island.

Ground work review (as always) and…of course…more Yielding Forequarters and Sending. During the Sending I asked for more hustle in Roscoe’s feet when his tail passed my belt buckle. A tap on the butt a time or two convinced him of my intent and he caught on quickly. Rubs and cookies make the lesson easier to swallow (grin). Then we rode. With the foot being so bad, we mostly walked and worked on our steering. It was not quite as good as Sunday but with three days off along with the chilly weather I was not expecting great things at first. It got better as the saddle part of the session went on. We got some walk-trot transitions in the mix, which were okay. Had to use the spanker a couple of times early in the session and then never had to touch it again. Roscoe’s backing was a bit sticky so we worked on that and introduced Yielding the Hindquarters under saddle. He flexed nicely until the leg/seat cue got into his brain and he moved his back feet. It is really cool seeing the thinking side of the brain of a horse work. You can see and feel them working on a solution. The sun was set and the moon was rising by the time we left the arena. All in all it was a nice session.

            We snapped some images of Roscoe to compare them to his first few days with us. A real change is happening. The exercise, training and nutrition have really helped! We have more muscle to add but that is going to take time and conditioning. Roscoe is a very social horse and having the consistent attention seems to be doing great things for his mind and demeanor. It should be neat to see what the winter and spring bring to our journey.