I worked Jackson for about an hour today. We
just worked on a few different things. We
worked on his rear. It wasn’t very good
today, so I just asked for a few and
rewarded his couple of good ones. I took him
to the good snow and asked him to lie down.
He pawed the ground a couple of times and
then lay down! I am still amazed when he
does that.
I then wanted to work on the obeisance and
his bow. But Jackson walked away again. I
figured that he wanted to lie down. He did.
He walked about 30 feet away and lay down
and rolled several times. I didn’t reward
him when he did that, but rewarded when he
came back. I am assuming that this comfort
with lying down is a sign of being relaxed
and trusting! I hope it is a good thing. I
guess that I just have to watch out for him
lying down when the saddle is on!
We did a couple repetitions with the bow and
he did just fine. I have to teach him to bow
and not lie down. Then I asked him to park
out and I hopped on his back. I rode him
just a little bit with the cordeo. At one
point, I decided to try something new. I
asked him to lie down. I dropped the cordeo
and gave the verbal cue to lie down. He put
his head down and started walking around. A
couple times he pawed the ground, but then
he seemed to stop trying to lie down. That
was fine. But I think he was close to doing
it! I can’t wait until he actually does it.
And all with out any physical pressure from
me… I think.
I then hopped off and rewarded him. We then
walked to the end of our driveway to get the
paper. He was completely loose. The farmers
had spilled corn right there, so I let
Jackson eat a little. Then we walked up to
the house. I asked my mom to watch Jackson
lay down. I took him to snow in the yard and
asked him to lie down. He did! So fun...
Teaching Jackson to lie down was one of my
big goals this year! What will we do next
year…?
