Thursday, December 15, 2011

Tumbleweeds work just fine

We had watched the Downunder Horsemanship with Tricky, the off-the-track thoroughbreed.  It was the episode where Clinton uses the trees to circle around.  The next day we were riding across from a farm and there was some plowing or harrowing going on.  The tractor had some big piece of equipment it was dragging behind it.  The horses weren't frightened, but they weren't paying attention to us either.  There are quite a few tumbleweeds in the field we were riding in, so we stated circling the horses around them like we had seen in the show.  It was sloppy at first, but it got better.  It was a nice day and we had all afternoon and we worked on it for about 15 minutes.. 

The horses finally got it and we went off and worked on our backups.  Also in that show, we had seen Clinton backup Tricky and the steps were light and quick.  Jessie will back up quickly, but not lightly.  Dusty is just the opposite.  We worked on that for about 10 minutes in one area, did some riding around, and then practiced it again in another area.  I think there was a little improvement in both horses. 

One thing I know for sure is that the horses hate it when we watch a show the night before a ride.  It means a lot more work for them.

1 comment:

Leslie said...

haa! I think our horses hate it when we watch a show too! we were so inspired after coming back from seeing Clinton Anderson show this past weekend, I know ours are cringing each time they hear the back door open!
We have all the Tricky show's dvr'd and getting ready to watch them! I hear they are good!