After settling into his new herd yesterday, Tank had his first session today. I introduced him to Desensitizing to the Lead Rope, Yielding the Hindquarters, Yielding the Forequarters, & Backing.
At first, he was a little unsure about the Desensitizing, particularly around his hind legs, but that seemed to be short-lived. Yielding the Hindquarters was a bit tight & rushed, so I'll be looking to see that slow down & get a bit more fluid. When Backing, I have four methods that I'll use: Tap the Air, Wiggle, Wave, Walk, Wack, Marching, & Steady Pressure. We spent a fair bit of time on this as he was pretty crooked, wanted to toss his head, & was a bit sticky at times. With Yielding the Forequarters, he was pretty resistant & wanted to step forward & block me with his shoulder, so we broke things down into baby steps & had some nice steps by the end of the session.
It's clear that he lacks strong confidence in himself & his surroundings as he started off pretty looky, which at this stage of being in a new place is understandable. I'll be looking for him to lower his head & be more at ease earlier in our sessions.
Next week, we'll get into the round pen & see where he's at with his Round Penning. I'll also introduce the Sending Exercise, Circle Driving, & Leading Beside. I'll begin saddling him about mid-week as well. I'm hoping we'll be able to get a bath towards the end of the week with the 70° weather. Since I've found a few holes to work through in his groundwork, I'll probably hold off on his first rides here until after I return from Texas.
- Lexy Nuesch
Next week's update will be posted on Friday.
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