Duncan Shenanigans

3/14/14

Meghan and I rode our ponies in the outdoor today. There was a little snow to tromp through, but still a little slick, as it was melting. Mostly walking and a little trotting. Riding outside lightens our spirits. It’s great to be able to just be outside and have a new set of things to look at. Duncan likes it too. We did some walk and got the hind and the front. Then some trotting where he was happy to go round and stay there. Simple. Easy. Fun.

3/15/14

Today I rode Duncan and we did the herd-bound exercise. This is where you have a group of horses standing in the middle on one side of the arena (in this case the victims were Levi and Molly). You can not steer at all with your reins, and can only use seat and leg. You make them go forward when they stay with the herd and pet and praise them when they leave the herd. I had never done this before, but thought it was a great exercise when I saw it at the University of Montana in their colt class. Duncan responded pretty well to it. At first he would be going in a 20 meter circle around Levi and Molly and look at the other side of the arena. I would pet him and then he would look away, and off we went. This continued for a little while and he slowly made his way further down the ring. He isn’t a huge fan of that side of the arena so he does like to avoid it. He made up his mind that he was sick of running and marched straight down to the other end of the arena. The dirt then hit the jump standard and off we went back to the other side. Luckily he went right back down there and stood as I hopped off and pet him. It was incredible to see that he would go down to the “scary end” by his own will, with me using no reins. I love that I can trust him that much.