I read this from Ray Hunt, somewhere. And it is what I had running through my head during today’s ride. I’ve had great momentum and excitement to get out to the barn lately, but I don’t want my exuberance to overcome what my soon to be 17 year old horse can handle. The next few… Read more »
the game
Harder Than it Had to Be
A few days ago I was reading an article about a trainer at a dude ranch, and he mentioned pushing horses in a pen or pasture just enough so they respect you as the one in charge. This is nothing new to me, but it did give me another perspective about trying to get Bear… Read more »
Double Work
Today was the first day of my vacation, so I went to the barn this morning with Robin (she still had some work to do, but she was game for some horse time). The days and nights have both been warm lately, and that means the winter lot is a mess. I should have gone… Read more »
Saturday Swap!
Guest blogger Robin here, posting on the Sham blog for the first time. Today Brian and I decided to switch horses. Since “The Game” can take quite some time and only one person can effectively play, when we are at the barn together one person ends up playing and the other ends up watching. Watching… Read more »
The Game Continues
And on Tuesday Sham scored his first point. We were 45 minutes into a rather frustrating round of the game when things started to look better. I could see he was fatigued, and from a dozen feet off he put his head down and calmly walked right towards me. I let him sniff around me… Read more »
The Game
On a sunny, windy day, I trudged out to the pasture in muck boots, rope halter in hand. Robin graciously hung out in the airlock and watched as I picked my way to Sham in the far corner of the pasture. He was nibbling at the first real grass blades coming up. As I hoped,… Read more »
Vacation Homework
Sham has been a little tough lately. He is certain that he is the boss, and as a result, I can’t catch him. So in my frustration (which nicely coincided with some vacation time in sunny Arizona) I went back to some of the training books we have around the house to see what I… Read more »