January 31, 2011 Make haste slowly

Rory checking out the bag of bedding pellets

Today I decided to set up two cavaletti nine feet apart for Rory's longe lesson.  I didn't tack him up, so he got to run loose while I set the cavalettis and video camera up.  He didn't seem too interested in running today and followed me back and forth. While I was trying to angle the camera for the best view Rory found the open bag of bedding pellets.  He nosed at it, grabbed it, pulled and spooked himself when it moved.  It was only a few seconds before he came back to start the process again.  He managed to pick it up on the third attempt, naturally by the torn open top corner, which promptly tore away from the rest of the bag allowing it to thump onto the ground at Rory's feet.  He had a little spook, but I think it was more in play than actually being startled.

Once I had the camera in place and running, I collected Rory, attached the longeline and took him out into the middle of the arena.  He wanted to check out the cavaletti again so I allowed him to walk over them before starting the longeing.  I made a mistake today.  Rory kept pulling towards the cavaletti, and I allowed him to go over them instead of moving the circle away and keeping it small while we practised the known lessons of walk, trot, whoa, and out.  The cavaletti were distracting and he jumped or cantered or stopped depending on how the approach went.  He did have several creditable passes over the cavaletti but overall it was not a particularly good session as he was not really listening to me.  I did manage to push him along the wall to make more of an oval than a circle several times as well and he did quite well given it was the first time we've done that.

It was a reminder lesson for me more than Rory. Review, remind, reinforce, and then introduce something new.  Rory is smart and he picks things up quickly, especially when food is involved, but he's still green and just because he got something right today doesn't mean he's going to remember it when the situation changes and a new distraction appears.