Day 79 ~ Play Day

Well Lindsay had a day off from riding today. I know she needed it...sure deserved it as hard as she's been working! Instead we played a bit in the round pen with our new "Toy" I begged my husband to make... It's a pedestal :) It's every bit of a foot and a half tall and only 2 by 2 foot wide. It is actually much taller in person that I was expecting it to be! When I first asked Lindsay to step up on it she willingly sailed over...over the whole thing! Did not miss a beat just cleared it from a stand still, well I asked a few more times and I believe all I was doing was re-iterating to her that I wanted her to sail over this new object versus step on it. hummmm what to do what to do. I tried picking a foot up and setting it on the stool..when she would start pawing I would really praise her, because she was trying to figure out what I wanted...just like when a baby is figuring out how to load on a trailer they will paw it first...I always encourage that because typically it's a sign they are thinking and exploring and before long they step on up. Well, she'd paw, but each time I asked her to step up she'd sail over again. I was happy to see how easy it was for her to do so, but that still wasn't what I wanted. It kinda had me stumped for a bit, she was doing exactly as I asked...I said go forward over this new object and she did just that, getting her to realize just "HOW" I wanted her to cross it was a different story. We started this last night and I stopped once she was pawing and being inquisitive, but had not yet stepped up. So today when we tried it I managed to build the dirt up just a hair on one side so that it was not such a huge leap up. I picked her foot up again and set it on the stool then at the same time I asked her to shift her weight forward by pushing the lead forward...just as I would do to load her into the trailer or ask her to go anywhere in hand...Well she lifted right up and before I knew it she was standing with her front feet up high on that stool. And high it is!...she looks like she is looking down on the world up there! I think she kind of liked the view once she was up there, she was very comfortable just gazing around. I asked a few more times and each time she figured it out quicker and quicker. I then asked from the other side that was flush with the ground, thus a bigger step. It took a little while to figure that out..and she did jump it once again...but then she put the two and two together and stepped up once again! We practiced it a few more times on that side to be sure she had the idea and I do think she's got it. It's amazing how much reasoning skills she has, she really can figure things out quite well when given the proper opportunity.

Also, tonight when we went out to the round pen to work on our new toy I turned her loose first in the round pen and I went to nail a non slip rug on top of the stool to be sure there was plenty of traction. So there I am in the dark...lite up pretty well by the moon...nailing a rug on top of this pedestal and what does the wild Mustang do? Well she is determining to see exactly what I am doing...she watches over my shoulder the entire time ..and I mean right over my shoulder..and then decides to try and sniff the hammer...as I am swinging it to drive the nails in! ...and if that wasn't enough she drops her head in the container of nails and tries to have a taste!!..Well I managed not to whack her in the nose with the hammer and also managed to keep her from eating any nails, but oh my what a personality this gal has! I know it has been there all along, but she is really showing it now, she is such a character.

After playing with our new toy I decided I'd better try the bull whip out around her. I do not personally plan to incorporate one when I ride at the competition, but I know many folks will so I figured I better give her a chance to see what it was first. Well, that went great...she stood perfectly still and did not seem the least bit afraid that the crack the whip made was at all intended to land on her. I do think I'll be leaving our bull whip at home though, I bought it off of E-bay just to use to desensitize her and I think if any cowboy saw it they would laugh at me big time. It is shiny black leather with some sort of metal rivets on it...it looks like it should have been packaged w/ handcuffs hehehe...it really doesn't look at all like the real deal, but it does crack and got the job done...I bet Lindsay was laughing at me big time cracking this toy of a whip around her. I imagine she laughs at me lots these days...hopefully she'll laugh again when I shoot some blanks around her, that's another thing on the list I want to do, we'll see!