I worked with Jackson for about an hour. I
first worked on companion walking. I took
him to a paddock and saw how much we needed
to work on it. Jackson wanted to wonder
around sniffing at all the piles of manure.
So I just left him alone and walked around
by myself. Eventually he decided he wanted
to come over and be with me. Then we were
able to do some work on it.
At first, he didn’t really pay attention to
what we were doing. He wouldn’t stay right
with me or even try to stay close when I
turned away. But little by little he started
to get it. He would stay with me when we
walked straight and when we turned to the
inside.
Then we worked on turning to the outside or
to the right. At first, he often got ahead
of me and we had to start over. Then he
started to do the shoulder in when I turned
in to him! I did reward him a couple of
times for offering that. Then finally, he
figured out he was supposed to slow down and
turn away. Click and reward for that. After
that, he seemed to get the idea of turning
left and right and stopping with me.
Then I saddled him up and took him to the
paddock where we normally work. We were
working on slush so we only worked at a
walk. I started out just working on turning
with a very slight weight shift. I think he
did better at it. Then we did various
patterns.
I focused on haunches in on a circle. I
would do a half circle with haunches in,
walk straight, and then another circle of
haunches in. Then I would do a half circle
of shoulder in, then walk straight and
another half circle of shoulder in. Then the
same thing in the other direction. Of
course, it was all at the walk.
Then I did half a circle shoulder in, and
then transitioned to half circle haunches
in. He did pretty well with the transitions.
I tried to be much more aware of which way
my I was looking and where my body was
turned. I think it helped. It was easier to
do this at the walk.
Then I did a couple steps of half pass, then
walked straight, then a couple more steps of
the half pass. I tried to be careful what I
was doing with my body position. I did that
in both directions. He did so well, that I
called it quits then. I think we made
progress. I do have a feeling that we need
more impulsion, but we will work on that
next time.
