Phew... I felt like the boys had me in a 3 Stooges episode last night. LOL First Leo decided he did not want to be caught. Of course he waited until I was 2 feet away before turning and running into the lower paddock. Like a little kid going "nah nah nah boo booo"
Then Orion decides it looks fun and runs after Leo. Teddy was the smart one who decided to just watch the fireworks. Once I got to the lower paddock, Orion decided he was going to stay in between Leo and I so I would have no hope of catching the little bugger. So I herded Orion back up into the upper pasture and shut the gate.
After 15 minutes of trotting, cantering, and galloping around Leo finally decides he can be caught. So on goes the halter and up to the upper paddock we go hiking. Once we get up there Orion decides he is going to try and nose around Leo's butt, attempting to herd him away from me. Leo (being the good boy he is) ignores Orion and keeps walking next to me. Orion and I had a discussion about how once I'm in the paddock, I AM THE BOSS, not him. :) Thankfully Orion's sensitive enough that all I had to do was give him the evil eye, puff up, and take a few steps toward him. After 3-4 repeats of this Orion decided he would follow us at a respectable distance and behave himself.
Meanwhile Leo is as high as a kite. Jigging all over, prancing around and acting like a 2 year old! I think he's got spring fever. We got the lunge line out (in the mood he was in I didn't trust him to not try and jump out of the riding ring if he was free lunged) and walked back to the ring. Surprisingly the ground was nice out there! Partly because it's on a high spot and the water drains out into the field on either side. Mostly because no one's been out there tearing it up with their hooves when it's icky out. :)
Poor Leo reached the end of his boredom tolerance. He needed to get out and do something physical. We just trotted around in circles nice and slowly. He's usually very hard to lunge going to the right, he wants to run backwards, spin around to the other direction, etc. Going to the right he wants to cut in, which makes him unbalanced and harder to go in circles that direction my himself. He was perfect both directions last night. Leo had a nice and balanced trot the entire time.
He really put his mind to what he was doing and trucked around. We didn't do much since he has been a pasture puff for months. I didn't want to make him sore or too tired. When we were done he was so cute. He came to the middle of the circle where I was standing, put his head in front of me, and let out this huge sigh of relief. It was a kodak moment. The poor guy just needed to do something to take the edge off.
Once Leo had his brain back we headed back to the barn for a nice brushing and some clicker training.
We only did a little bit of clicker training last night no more than 5 minutes. We also went back a step, I held my target the entire time. Each time I moved it was only a few inches away from where it had been before. I even did stretches to each side. I just held the target by his withers where I would normally hold a carrot for stretches. He swung around touched the target and got his yummy treat! I was amazed! I think Leo understands much more than I thought he did.
It was the fastest 5 minutes of training ever! Plus I made sure I took the target away after he touched and I clicked, then didn't bring it back until I had the next treat in my other hand. It worked better that way. I kept a step ahead of him and was ready to shove the treat in his mouth seconds after he touched it and milliseconds after he heard the click. I think we're both having fun. Yup Leo is very treat motivated!
The farm was so pretty last night. The sky was mostly cloud free and the moon was full. All I could do was laugh as I drove home last night. Life is never boring with those 3 ponies.....
My next clicker training session should be on Thursday this week. I can't wait!
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