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.
That is great, looks like you need a carrot stick though! here’s a “Can You?” question… can you keep your feet still and have her do the figure eight without leading her around each turn?
~Gina
Parelli Central
Great for Trixie !!!
Looking good. I will maybe give this a try today with Bodhi. It is always fun to have a new challenges to try and test how well my cues have generalized. I like how she is keeping the free horse away and still paying attention to your cues! That shows emotional control. Also my little man is so submissive we have a hard time working when other horses are free because nobody respects his space and I end up having to do all of the policing. So there is the up side with working with a grumpy pony mare.
What a nice exercise, great video too. I’m going to try that out with my quarters. My mare is getting better and better at maintaining a respectful distance while I lead her but I think this exercise would really benefit her.