Haakon came in to be shod, so I caught Charlot to work with.
I put his bridle on and we started with some lungeing so he trotted happily over 4 poles, picking his little feet up. I am not sure about lungeing as I don't like to lug on Charlot's mouth trying to pull him in the direction I want, so I asked and released, asked and released giving him room to make decisions based on my requests. He was a good boy and got used to the bridle again and dropped his head beautifully to look at the poles to pop over.
After that I harnessed Charlot up and attached the reins to his bit so we could do a spot of long-reining. He liked that and was far more attentive, listening to my voice commands rather than me hauling again on his mouth to get what I wanted. He appreciated the ask/release method and it got to the point where I would just say "Charlot, and st...." and he would instantly halt! "Charlot, walk on" and off we went again. He is not keen on turning and tries to evade that option but we succeeded and I even managed to take some photos. When he stands though, he gets bored easily and starts pawing the ground (see photo below).
While Jo was finishing up, I sat on the physio ball with some pony-nuts and Charlot came to stand in front of me, nibbling the odd nut and generally chilling with me! It was lovely. What a different pony from this time last year. I felt totally safe.
On a roll, Jo trimmed Charlot's front feet with absolutely no bother at all. He even put them up on the stand to be rasped! The backs were the usual fight so we tried a couple of times and then twitched him before he got more and more in a state and he let us do them with no fuss at all.
I am pleased with him. We are getting there. I know we are now.
3 comments:
It has been a while since I peeked in, Frances, and it is so rewarding to hear the optimism in your tone about Charlot!
Today is Thanksgiving here in the States. Here's a word of thanks for your continued blogging, your progress with Charlot, and hopefully, for your recovering back. :)
Thank you - lovely to hear from you Tom.
what a huge amount of progress with him, i think you are right you are getting the key to him, poor wee man, if only he could tell us what was wrong with him.
like you finding he is younger than you first thought, I believe Voddy who was sold as a 4yo was probably only 18 months or so, given that she has now grown height and length wise by about 6 inches...she was also immature and babyish but we were so lucky that she doesnt have any hang ups.
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