Hula Hoops

Josie and I have been playing with hula hoops this past week. It is a good winter time activity since there isn't a lot of sweating involved! My main goal at first was to back her into a hoop and have her place her back feet in the hoop. Shouldn't be that hard, but it is amazing how they don't want to stick their feet in that hoop! The first few sessions, it took some patience and finagling to get her in there. After a few days in between the first two sessions though, it went remarkably more smoothly when we revisited it. I can now get her to put all four feet in two hula hoops, from about 25 feet away. I haven't been able to get her to back through the first hoop on the way to the second hoop yet. She ends up sort of next to the hoops with her back feet, and then we sideways those into the hoop. But we'll keep playing with it! I was even able to get her to do it at liberty yesterday, from about 15 feet away.

My next task will be to get her to sideways into the hoops, and I would also like to play with putting her back feet in the hoop and yielding her FQ around without having her back feet leave the hoop. We have also started playing with drawing at liberty--more specifically to have her come to me at the weave! I was inspired by a fellow Facebooker on this one... We have some elements to work out on this one, but it is a good goal to strive for! I was able to get some nice trot-to-me draws at liberty yesterday, which is good for my lazy RBI! I'll keep playing with the figure eight and weave patterns and eventually work those in at liberty. I'll keep you posted!

A new year

I am going to try to start blogging more regularly again. This winter is going by quickly, and I feel like spring is right around the corner....pretty soon it will be trail riding season again!

I met Kari out at the barn today. It was nice to have another day with our ponies. Both of our horses were quite full of it today! In a good way! We let them run free in the arena for a while at first, and Josie was kicking up her heels more than I have ever seen her do. That fat rear can really get off the ground when it wants to! We played on the ground for a bit, working on figure eights and putting hind feet in hoola hoops. She is getting more confident with that, but still has some hesitation about getting both feet in the hoop. It is interesting to me that keeping feet in the hoop is such a big thing. We have definitely made great strides with the last few sessions of trying it.

Then we rode bareback for a while. A nice warm task for a cold and dreary day! Josie was great--stayed at the mounting block like a good girl once I got on (unlike last time when she decided she should take off at the trot! whoops how interesting....let's try that again, honey!!!!!)

That's it for now. I plan to go back out again in the morning. Maybe I'll blog again then!