Ding Ding: Round 2

Our second bout of "Boxing" this evening ;-)

Got a lovely hello whinny when I went to bring Bailarina in...always makes me feel like it's going to be good if she's pleased to see me

We wandered straight round to my box and kept everything exactly as before, rope headcollar and long line and I quite simply walked up the ramp leaving her standing at the bottom to see what she'd do.



Well she had a couple of tentative paws then popped both front feet on, took a few more steps up until her back feet were touching with me just giving her a stroke and praise with each forward movement, but she stopped short of lifting her back feet on and instead calmly walked herself backwards off the box.






I gave her a minute to have a think and then repeated the exercise, just asking for forwards, and if she got a bit stuck moving her weight to the side until B moved a foot, then praised and stroked her again...this time we got all four feet on and had a little stand, but again Bally didn't feel able to make the final push and actually get on the box...no worries, we just calmly went back down again (which in itself is a good lesson each time ;-))

My blummin phone battery had died by this point so I don't have any more piccies..ggrrrr but onwards and upwards for try number three. I asked her to step up and she did, then after a good bit of snuffing and snorting she took a few more steps up...all four feet on the ramp again.

I asked her to move on gently and she stiffened, so I left well alone, Bally had another sniff around then just walked straight on up the last little bit of ramp into the box..whoohoo!

This time I just let her stand nice and quietly, but I moved across the box and back so there was a little movement that she could feel, but kept a constant stream of soothing chat and scratches going, I could see her chilling out so I offered her some feed, then put it down and left her to it.

We stood around for a good five minutes and then calm as you like I carefully backed her off down the ramp and Bailarina just gently made her way off step by step without a hint of tension

What a SUPERSTAR!!!!