Learning about Rhulain

60 minutes, ground work

I wanted to spend some time with Rhulain, so I tossed on a halter and asked her to exit the turn out.  She rushed through the gate, so we worked on where to stand and not to move forward until asked, then progressed to walking calmly through the gate.  It only took three passes before she was executing gate manners perfectly.

Morgan didn't want to be left behind, so I opened the gate and let her wander the property.  Rhu kept an eye on Morgan and one on me.

We started with basics: leading, stopping, turning, and backing. Moved on to lunging in both directions at a walk and trot.  She's got a great stop.  We walked around the yard and whenever we got out of Morgan's sight, Morgie would come trotting to where we were.  Rhu didn't crowd my space, but she did try to walk ahead of me if Morg was around.  Minor corrections and we were fine.

She's got a "So what?" attitude which is great.  Giant tractor tire? So what?  Monorail in the yard?  So what?  Jackrabbits jumping out of bushes?  So what?  The only thing that seemed to hold her attention was the dogs ... not that she seemed scared, but interested.

Ran into a bit of trouble when I tried picking up her hooves. Fronts were no problem, back right was hesitant, but there was no way she was giving up the back left.  Ok. This is not an issue, just an opportunity to get to know her better.  Worked on it for a few minutes and once she gave up all four hooves and let me hold them for 5 seconds each, I moved on to something else.  I'll work on picking up her hooves everyday until it isn't an issue.

She is a little stiff flexing to the left, but very pliable on the right.  Good to know.  She ties off to the trailer like a champ.  There's a few little holes in her training ... could be that the cue was different.  It's certainly fun to figure each other out!