Horse Games

No Footing

The arena was still frozen and snow and ice covered. It's not going to get better for the rest of the week as the temps will be dropping.

I elected to just try some "obedience horse" tonight so the Boys and I would at least have some interaction. The idea was to have a horse follow my lead without a halter or lead rope, then halt, back, move over, and once more follow.

Tucker thought the whole thing was mildly amusing and watched me with disdain.

Toby came over for a scratch and then walked away.

Chance followed me for a spell, but when we did the back up--he was fine--that ended his interest in following me.

The NH crowd would say I need to work on the join up.

I say my horses were just being natural.

Then I filled my pockets with treats and Tucker was on instant alert. He followed, he backed, he followed, he moved over, he kept mugging me for treats. I needed only voice commands to get him to move as I wanted him to, as long as at the end of an exercise was a peppermint horse treat.

You see, all you need is some motivation.

Food is good.