Casper and Zora's Training Progress

It's been hot here this week - so we've been doing long walks rather than intense work in the arena.  Casper is great walking out in the back forty with the dogs.  Yesterday we worked on walking over the small cross country log jumps and checking out all the shadows they created.

Zora has been coming along really nicely, too.  Yesterday she rode in the arena for the first time and did some trotting under saddle.  Rizzo had to help her with trotting from sun into shade.  That can be hard for horses because their eyes adjust to changes in light much more slowly than humans do.  Rizzo led the way and wears a bell.  When Zora got to the shade line and Rizzo disappeared into what looked to Zora like a black abyss, she could still hear the bell and figured out that Rizzo just went forward into the shade, and it wasn't anything she needed to worry about.  That's one of the great things about having my half-covered arena, we get that shade line and can teach horses about going in and out of the shade without worrying.

This is Zora finding her forward trot:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7M2-w-3kQ8U

 This is her climbing on and then off of the bridge:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0t52-r-5ZM

 

Zora also was eager to get on the bridge.  Amy had done lots of trick training with Zora at home before she arrived here for riding training, so Zora was ready and willing to show off her skills.  This morning after I mounted she very carefully and precisely sidepassed over the mounting block, too.  She's super fun because she offers these behaviors and is eager to earn praise.

 

Today she repeated all the work from yesterday, then we headed out to the front field to help her find her forward and to regain her interest.  Zora's incredibly smart, and yet still young mentally.  Therefore it's a delicate balance between overwhelming her and making her bored.  When either of those happens she kind of shuts down and quits trying.  Fortunately we have lots to keep a young horse's interest, so out to the field we went! 

Hopefully I'll have some video soon, as she stood nicely for me to open the gate, and then sidepassed over carefully when I lifted it to open it.  She then politely marched out into the field to go see what interesting things we could find in the wide open.  She walked over the small jumps set out there, as well as walking over the small log in the front field.  We did a little trotting and she figured out how to balance a rider when walking both up and downhill.  A very fun ride with lots of new things for her to think about!