....Followed by some Lows and Highs!

Designated today as a spook busting training day for Bally!

Idea came to me as when I arrived at the field this morning they were just starting a football training session - it was the very littles - about 5-6 years old, so lots of running around and squealing and yelling (and that was just the coaches ...pmsl)

The girls led in just fine, tied up on the fence at the back of the goal they were using and contentedly munched away with the occasional head lift to check out the entertainment over the fence! Superstar ponies!

Obviously as crowd training going so well I had to up the ante slightly so planned a fun session for this afternoon, incorporating clicker work.

It didn't start very well :-(

Brought Bally in and she was hyped as soon as she realised she was in and Dee wasn't. So even walking her from the gate to the barn she was tense. I just insisted on forwards thinking every time she stopped and thought backwards... so keeping her feet moving, asking her to lower her head and getting attention and focus...well I got her up to the barn and tied up with a haynet.
I'd already decided to go back to the way we'd been working before the break - bridle on every session whether it's going to be used or not, and I felt it was quite important to tackle this asap as I thought she might be a bit hesitant about it after what happened on Tuesday.

A bit hesitant doesn't even come close........as soon as I lifted it towards her she reared and span, snapping the metal clasp on her rope and the top spar of the gate she was tied to.

Major issue to get round! I let her run herself down in the corral and just waited till she became calmer, got my long line, caught her and brought her back round to the barn.

.....And got the clicker straight out to work on changing her focus....

B worked really well through each step - bridle in front of her, stay standing....touch it with her nose....let me lift it and touch her, let me hold it close and touch her ears..then her mouth, right through in about 20 minutes to letting me put it on.

Phew!

Then with me working from a long line on her rope halter we just had a nice easy walk around the paddock working on halts, turning, backing etc on a nice loose lead...easy peasy stuff to build her confidence and trust back up.

Bally was back to her lovely sunny self now so I thought I'd give her a challenge and do some clicker work with spooky things like crinkly noisy flappy plastic food sacks to get her thinking and working out what behaviours to offer to get her reward.

We had the best session EVER! It really was the first time I think I really, truly realised the potential of the clicker with a horse of her nature - Bally is so sensitive and reactive and this makes her stop and think and most important of all try to figure out what to do rather than just slam the anchors on or run.

First off I dragged the sacks out, spread them around the corral and worked on clicking for her approaching and touching, and wasn't long before she was moving them about with her nose and merrily walking past, then onto and over them, and finally wearing them as I upped the ante to get the treat.

Bally was having a ball, completely relaxed and working so hard, so as I had about 15 treats left I got my pop up umbrella out and we worked through touching it closed, standing still and watching it open, walking with me carrying it up and finally letting me move it in an arc from in front of her, over head and back down to in front of her with her quietly standing head lowered and watching it.

I was running out of treats so stopped, used the last couple to get her bridle off quietly and calmly then gave her a jackpot (...her dinner) and taking the bumbag off ended the session there!
Bless her she really wanted to work and she worked so hard, but seemed to enjoy it tremendously...I know I did :-)