Today was a great day with Avery! I brought in 2 buckets, and placed them about 30ft apart, and set a treat on each of them. I started to lead him from zone 3 to one of the buckets...but it took awhile, as he was dragging his feet not caring about what we were doing. When we got to the first bucket, he picket up the treat with look as if he was surprised to find it there. Drove him to the next one, and ta-DA! Another treat! NOW this was an interesting game! He knocked over the bucket to make sure he got everything. Drove back to the first bucket(and tossed a treat on it before we got there) and he knocked it over too. Did this several times before moving on.
Then we went to a gate(by now he's looking for where a treat might appear if he puts his nose on it), and he shoved the gate making it open. Good boy! I gave him a treat.
Swung around at the hanging jolly ball, got a treat. Opened another gate, and pushed the big exercise ball around.
I think he really gets this game now. I'm hoping it'll help our circling too.

Spent some undemanding time with Avery today. He stood by me the whole time, and didn't go wandering off. He used to leave within minutes. Progress! He wants to chill with me! It's great to see a little bit of trust.
Tryed out sideways with the 22'. It needs work. I realized that I need to work on using all the 22' not just 12. haha!
Other than that, I'm trying to keep a balance of love, language, and leadership. It's hard to make the language clear, and the leadership strong enough. Will continue to work on it though.

Well...today I touched a little deeper into challenging dominance. I've really only been playing the first 4 games, and advancing them everyday. The circling game, sideways game, and squeeze are very challenging for me. I'm very afraid that when I have to "tag" my horse because he is so unmotivated, that he'll explode. He'll come over the top of me, kick me in the head, then run over me, and then sky will fall suffocating me. I know that's unrealistic, but seems very possible when I'm in the situation.
So, today I got on the other side of the fence. He rampages this way and that until the fence stops him. So I let him for awhile until the adrenaline came down, and he was doing it somewhat more coolly. At one point he just turned away from me, and walked away. I tagged his hindquarters, and he reared! So high, and so close to the fence I thought his front end might come over it. hmm. how interesting -- when the hind end is tagged, the front end comes up. A little bit later he walked away again. I tagged his HQ and pulled his head slightly toward me. THIS time he let out one HUGE kick, and all 4 feet came off the ground. Okay. One more calm lap, and I had to quit. That all got way to close to my theory of the sky falling. Will try again tomorrow. Not much enticement to ride.

The last few sessions have been kinda similar with a bit of variety. But basically we're working on, sideways, leading from zone 3, and "wipe that snotty look off your face!".
Now that I'm slowly getting my confidence back, I decided to not allow those snotty ears to be pinned anymore. If I can get that straight and sorted out on the ground, I'd be a lot more comfortable with riding. I find myself saying a lot lately "why fix something from the saddle what can be fixed from the ground?"
He checks in a lot, and lets me know when he needs a treat. He pushes the bucket, and the jolly ball when I point to them. I can rub his tounge, and am still working on his feet. He doesn't like to hold up his left front. Wierd horse. But lots of fun!

I know it's been awhile, I've just been too lazy to log in my days the last few weeks. We've been pretty much doing the same thing. Just practicing the 7 games with different obstacles. Our sideways game has been waaaaaay slow. What I do is face his side, then "push"(with the carrot stick) his front end, then hind end. Usually he swings his hind end too far, and ends up face to face with me. So today I stepped it up a notch, and asked his front end to go before he could face me again. It was pretty cool, and I could actually see that what we were doing was sideways and not just the driving game bakc and forth.
Started the circling game...but I wasn't very confident about it. So I'll leave that for another day. Also started playing in his mouth, an dwith his legs. LOTS of friendlyness.

Over the weekend we went to Atwood Ranch's open house. It was pretty cool to see Pat and Kalley play with horses. It always is. It was strange though seeing Remmer and Allure happily grazing out in a pasture. And even stranger meeting Linda. It's just wierd to meet someone I have already learned SO much from, and she has no idea who I am. But I had fun. It was a great weekend.