Trixie is a great little rescued pony mare who I have been playing with for almost two weeks. She is part Saddlebred and part pony, although she definitely has that pony attitude! (She is currently available for adoption from Never-E-Nuff Acres.)
Trixie is friendly, smart and quite food motivated, but can also be pushy and mischievous. We’ve been doing a lot of ground work and she’s been doing great. She is a very quick learner!
We’ve been working some recently on circles, change of direction on a circle, and figure-eights. Figure-eights are a GREAT exercise to do on the ground with your horse.
The figure-8 pattern combines several ground work exercises including being able to:
–send your horse way from you
–draw your horse back towards you
–yield your horse’s hind quarters
–ask your horse to change directions
–go between two objects, Parelli squeeze game style
If your horse has trouble doing a figure-eight, go back and check that she’s really good at the elements above.
Trixie and I played today with doing a figure-eight pattern over a fallen tree. She’s done figure-8s before around two buckets, but never over an obstacle. She had no problem and did the pattern like a pro! Check out the youtube clip below.