Okay...I went out with the halter, 22 ft, and my stick. Tug was standing near the woodline near Sugar. Dot was following me so when I got about halfway to him, I just started rubbing on her. Pretty soon he made a move towards me, but stopped. He never made another move, so I started walking out around him. (He's looking at me the whole time) When I got past his drive line, he didn't leave. (YAY!) I finally had to just approach him, but he was okay with that and he even did a small nicker. I laid my stuff out so he could sniff them before I rubbed him with the halter and put it on him. Then I gave him a treat. When I walked off, there was some drag in the rope, but no worries, he caught up and we went to the pasture gate. (We went for a walk in the snow yesterday down the pasture and I got him to circle a few times) We went to the woodline where the snow was gone and it was warm, and started to play. At first I did some driving the front and hind end to try to get him to make a circle in front of me. We didn't get a complete circle, but it was pretty good! Then we did some squeeze game under a few branches. After the third time, he was putting more effort into going [i]under[/i] them, and paying more attention to me. I've only touched on leading by the mane, so we practiced that too. We did some stick to me on his left side to find a dry spot big enough to circle.(he's more comfortable with me on the left side) Stick to me was great! I used my energy perfectly, and he got it! Walking, trotting, stopping, and backing up! He licked his lips right when I turned my energy off to end the game. I finally settled on a spot and asked him to go to the left. (again, more comfortable on that side) He'd maintain a trot for about 2 laps, but that was it. Then he started to get worried over something, and a truck that he saw through the woods caused him stop on the circle and that had his full attention. I attempted the falling leaf pattern for the first time! It definitely calmed him down right away! I never got the number of laps I wanted at a trot, but when I just asked him to walk, he tried to trot. :? I got 3 or 4 at the walk and he was blowing out with his head level and more relaxed. Then we walked back up the pasture where I sat down and moved him out away from me to stand. He cocked his led and stayed for a while and then slowly checked with me to see if it was okay to come closer. When I didn't object, he came all the way. I turned him loose after I closed the pasture gate and walked to the barn. He followed and we had some UDT.
Before I fed the horses, I got my stick and walked behind the barn. Tug was at the woodline again, but I stopped at a farther distance. He started to come to me! :shock: I was like, "Oh my gosh! What do I do?!" I walked towards him and then in the opposite direction, and I let him catch up to me. I gave him a treat and stayed there a few minutes. Then he walked to the barn. After I played around with using my energy, I wanted to see how easy it was to lift his tail. In Natural Horse-Man-Ship, Pat mentioned something about it. Normally Tug gets a little tense when I go near there, but not today! I lifted it, and kinda pumped it up and down lol, and he backed up! I don't know if he was looking for treats, like he was before he stood still for me to get near his tail, or what, but the second time I did it, he backed up again! Looks like we have a different way to lead by the tail. Sometimes I have to pull harder on his tail to get him to back up, but it took less than 4 ounces this way!
Tug normally doesn't want to be caught 2 days in a row. That tells me I'm not making things fun. Then I realized that I don't really have a lesson to go with the play sessions. The lesson I wanted to do today was leading by the mane.
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