Oh Yes °º¤ø,ø¤º We Did It, We Did It

The light finally went on with Gizmo today, he's got it sussed - touch the target, hear the click, get a lil treaty!!!!! BREAK THROUGH !!!!!

°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸ CAN YOU TELL I'M EXCITED?!?!? °º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸

I was beginning to wonder just what the lummox had between his ears, but yey - we do have something!!

Thanks to Becky and her excellent workshop, I came away feeling much more positive that we would succeed.

Giz, the horse I loan from the local riding school, had started lashing out with his front legs at me having made the mistake of touching his shoulder to get him to lift his hoof off the floor, we went back to the very beginning after the course, I made a target with a whip and tennis ball - BRIGHT YELLOW!! so there was no chance he could miss it and "way-hey" here we are today only a week later, which to be fair was only two sessions and he's got it, No more lashing out with his legs, just a cute look in his eye waiting for the ball to touch it with his nose. I've even managed to shape it to two touches before click and treat. We also did some work on the lunge in the school which went very well - he was very confused at first as one of the staff from the yard where he's kept, tried lunging him yesterday and by all accounts he tried to do away with her!!

We just tried one step at a time on both reins until we had a full circle before the click on both reins, albeit with me holding onto the rein under his chin and the schooling whip resting against his quarters, but he did it. I'll have a go a shaping it over the next few sessions.

He even did a couple of strides of shoulder-in!!! And I'd never even heard of the movement until Becky's workshop.

I'm loving this technique - and so is he. Still had some napping whilst out on a hack, but I was with another rider who took the lead each time, so I'm not going to worry about that for now, just get him respecting me and responding in a positive forward way in the school before tackling that issue.

I can wait to get back to the yard and do some more. Hope you all have a good firework night tomorrow.

Ta-ra
Karen