Play Day

I love using spooky objects to play with horses. While these objects would frighten most horses if encountered unexpectedly, introducing them in a controlled, relaxed environment is fun for horse and trainer. 

I used to be strict about saying "play with my horse" versus "work with my horse" and during this session I remembered why. Work doesn't always have a negative connotation for me, but sometimes it is good to have a reminder that horses aren't a job. Ava and I benefit more from relaxed, playful interaction that forced expectations. 

I played with her attention by rustling each object until she looked at me. I then release pressure by moving the object away. When she became distracted, I made noise with the spooky thing until she stopped and gave me her attention again.

She quickly realized the noisy objects were harmless, although she did't like the tarp over her head. I don't blame her, it takes a lot of trust to relax when you can't see anything. We'll reach that milestone another day.

Avalon has an unfortunate habit of crowding me with her shoulder, so we spent some time on our forequarter yields. 

We ended the session with a lesson in patience.

In this session, and all of my time with Ava lately, I got to try out some new techniques I learned at the MN Horse Expo. There is a post about that coming soon!