Playing with Ponies

So there's a family in my ward that has 4 horses. These horses haven't really been ridden in about 3 years, and when Cathy found out that I love to work with horses, she invited me to come over and play while she babysits. How do you pass that up? Well, you don't. :)

Today was my first time to really get a chance to go and play with them. So, for two hours, I chased them around a big field. After an hour or so Cathy came out and asked if I was trying to tire them out. It surely looked that way. But no, I explained to her that because the horse I was trying to work with was jittery about being caught, I was teaching her to catch me. I did this by reacting to everything she did. At first, she just ran all over the field. I kept my attention on her- and her alone- and stopped walking after her whenever she would look at me, even if she was just turning around. After awhile she got tired and turned to face me a little more often. Each time she did, I just stopped. Then, after a few seconds, I would try to approach her hindquarters. Of course, each time she ran off again. Eventually, though, her friends got tired of running and realized that I wasn't after them. They stayed in the corners and ate while Little Lady and I kept at it. Because she had slowed, I had to change my tactics a little bit. I would swing my rope all the way around if she went faster than a walk. When she was just walking, I kept the rope swinging below my waist. Again, I would stop everything whenever she would stop and give me two eyes- which she started to do more frequently. Yay!

After awhile of doing all this, she figured out that she didn't need to move all of her feet when I went to her hindquarters. She just needed to move her hind feet and face me and I would leave her alone. Eventually, she let me come up and touch her. Woohoo! I rubbed her all over with my hands and the rope and found her itchy spot... it was awesome. Then I let her go. I caught her 3 more times after that just to cement the lesson for today. And in the meantime, I played with Sacari.

Sacari is a mustang, complete with tattoo. She's big, though. The owners think she has some draft blood in her, and she sure looks like it! She's a sweetheart, too. The first time I met her, she showed her left-brained extrovert nature, and I thought she would be a handful. But no, she's just really curious. Granted, she's very confident and in charge, but she's such a sweet girl! I played the first 3 Parelli games, and she did great with them all. I tried to Yo-yo her, but she wasn't nearly as confident with that.

But I got outside! I played with horses for 2 hours this morning in the glorious fall weather! I had so much fun. I can't wait to go back!