Harry Whitney day 1 part 2

Cass is very disrespectful. He crowds, he bites, he is always on top of me whenever you need to do something. Within 30 seconds Harry had fixed it. He told me I was nagging him but not really commanding his respect or attention. Within 30 minutes he was standing quietly away from us and finding out that coming in didn't work out so well for him. For the first time ever I was able to feed him without being crowded last night. All I did was whack the rope on my shoe and making a noise and he went right back to trick is going to be teaching others to treat him the same way so he can generalize his learning. 

One of the things Harry observed about him is that he is so tense. His head his Hugh and his elbows are clamped into his body. One of the things I am to work with is to get him to lower his head and relax. This will create more space in his chest and rib cage. Even after an hour his body was relaxing and growing. He went from looking like a colt to a more mature horse after just an hour of work. This is a body work and posture issue. Improving his posture will improve his relaxation and vice versa. 

I can see how this work will benefit Liberty as well. He is often tense and doesn't pay attention. I'm hoping if I get him more focused on me perhaps he will call less and be less anxious. His anxiety has been costing us p&r's points. If he can out his head down and breathe and release tension his p&r's will improve. 

We also talked about horses who lick and chew or who don't. Sometimes it means the horse is so tense that they can't. But it can also mean that the horse is really ok so the changes caused by licking and chewing aren't as dramatic. He says when the kicking and chewing happen after a release its not near as important  the as the licking and chewing that happens during work. He says everyone gets excited about kicking and chewing and it's not always they big of a deal. 

I was highly impressed how much we learned in the little covered pen. I have always thought I needed to have a bigger space to practice things but it's simply not true. We can learn so much wherever we are. 

Today I don't know what we will work on. It was raining yesterday and if we can get in the round pen  (no rain) I hope to expand on yesterday and maybe play with some obstacles. If it's raining I'll probably try to work on saddling and bridling in the rainy area. I hope to start teaching him to move his hind and forequarter as well as side passing.