Mustang Saga

John worked with Cisco in the round pen today. It went very well. I think Cisco knows what round pen exercises are all about, except maybe inside turns. He hooked on to John and was doing great, then John worked on rubbing him all over with the training stick. Cisco is afraid of it, so it will take some time for him to relax with it, but he wasn't taking off or anything, just tense. Then they did some work on the halter and lead and we talked about where a horse should walk in relation to his human since Cisco lags a bit behind. After that we walked to the trailer, John asked him to just consider going in, and he did, so we put him away.

Meanwhile... Tonka was having a little fit! Squealing and grunting like a pig, bucking around in his quarantine pen. This was the first time he's seen another horse for almost a week. He wanted to play too, poor guy. It's got to be awful being locked up like that with no outlet for his energy and no company.

This afternoon I was thinking I wanted some coffee but I got out my new Pilates DVD instead. It was hard, but not nearly as hard as I expected after hearing from other people. I did a 20 minute workout and part of another one. I'm going to start doing Tai Chi as well, and we're going to get John's parents' treadmill. We've also made a commitment to start eating better again. You could say we're starting our New Year's Resolutions a month early. I'd like to be a better horseman and rider, but I'm so out of shape it's not even funny. I've been watching Chris Cox and dreaming of going to one of his 6 day clinics (never going to be able to afford it, but I can dream) and thinking there's no way I could do it, it would kick my butt. So I'm going to do my best to get my "powerhouse" more powerful, myself more flexible, and just overall more able. And maybe I'll look better in the saddle next year too. :)

I joined HorseFlix today and I can't wait to get my first video. I'll probably be doing "reviews" on the stuff I watch in case anyone is interested. At least a thumbs up or thumbs down I suppose. Speaking of which, I watched GaWaNi Ponyboy's Horse Follow Closely for the first time yesterday. It's very basic stuff. In the beginning he had some ideas I hadn't heard before, so that was food for thought, but the rest is just round penning, sacking out, giving to pressure. It also really bothered me that he chose to use a lame horse for his roundpenning demo. Its hooves needed a trim pretty badly, so that might be all the problem was, but whatever it was, it was enough to make him limp, which to me says he doesn't have the horse's best interest in mind. You don't run a lame horse if you don't have to. And even if you somehow know it's not bothering the horse, why choose that horse for a demonstration that is going to be put on a video? For my purposes, I'd give it a thumbs down, but for a beginner it's decent information. You'd probably get more from watching a different clinician though.