I worked Jackson for about 45 minutes today.
I just bought a santa hat and some tinsel. I
plan on doing some fun photos with that and
wanted to make sure he was okay with that.
He wasn’t too sure about the tinsel wrapped
around him, but he was fine with the hat. He
picked it up and slobbered all over it!
Maybe tomorrow or the next, we will take
some fun photos and videos.
I only lunged him a little bit as the snow
was hard and he didn’t want to walk in it
much. He immediately started to put his head
down while he went. I clicked a few times
for that. But then I asked him to put his
head back up. He did and I clicked for that.
Then I stopped. I wanted to try out what
Donald and I had been talking about for the
rear, but I need to start with a horse that
doesn’t know how to rear on command. The
first time I had him walk quickly forward
and then stopped him with a light tug on the
cordeo then I gently pulled back and he gave
a little rear. Then he just wanted to do
wild rears after that. What I might do
though, is work on walking forward then
stopping and leaning back. No rearing. I bet
it is a good exercise for him.
We did work on our rearing today, and it
improved even more. I am struggling to come
up with different cues for the different
rears. You know, one where he keeps his
front legs tucked in, one where he waves
them around, one for a high rear, and one
for a low rear. I will have to work on that.
Oh, and one for him to walk forward and one
for him to jump! But he did really well!
Intermixed with all the other things, were
various front crunches, obeisance, and lying
down. Yes, he laid down again, three times!
One time he even rolled. It is looking a
little better and I think that it might be a
really good way to teach it at the
beginning.
His obeisance is getting better. We are
working on getting it looking nice and
getting it on cue.
