Crystal still has at least 100 lbs to gain before I ride her, so my goal tonight was just to do some walking exercises to see what she knew without any stress.
I only had the last few minutes of dusk-light to play, but I made the most of them! :) I had wanted to get out there all day but had other things going on with family to tend to. I haltered Crystal and curried some of that icky thick hair off of her and then led her out to the ring. The first thing I noticed was that she was not at all concerned about being out in the ring. With Arwen, her head went up and she was looking around, but Crystal had that "ho-hum" attitude. We practiced walk and halt on the lead several times. I wiggled the lead slightly if she went past me and she very quickly "got it" to stop when I stopped. I found a place with plenty of room and just had to see - I only had her on a 12' line, but wanted to see if she knew how to longe. After me clicking at her a few times with her looking at me saying, "are you serious?" she stepped off to the left and made a perfect circle around me without any trouble. I said "whoa" and she stopped on the circle and turned her head to look at me. I asked "walk on" and lifted the longe whip slightly and off she went at the walk again without any trouble. We did that 2-3 times to the left then I tried to the right. She started off just wanting to go to the left - a racehorse thing to do. But after insisting that she go to the right, she finally gave in and went to the right, and with a little help made a good circle. She again whoaed on command and then walked off again when I asked. I could hardly believe it :)
Although I know I should have done it first, I then asked her to give to pressure by gently milking the lead until she dropped her head - she totally got it and no trouble. I gently pulled the lead toward her chest and took a step towards her and she backed just as she should. Then I asked her to yield her hindquarters and front end without much effort both directions.
We longed both directions again at the walk one more time with a "whoa" and ask to move on again with ease. The last thing I tried was something I learned from Becky when she worked with Arwen a few days - to ask her to yield her hindquarters by holding on to the lead and walking towards her rump. The goal is to make sure the horse knows to use their near hind leg and move it across/infront of their other hind leg. She had no trouble doing that to the right, but to the left, she preferred to move her left hind leg behind her RH instead of the other way. After another try she took several steps the correct way and we quit with that.
Pretty amazing! :) I'm so excited for her and look forward to working with her through the coming months. She is going to be a great find for a lucky adopter!
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