Oct 8 - BIG Bouncy Ball

Chester was a lot better today about not stopping for food when bringing him into the barn. I am able to use less pressure on him to get him moving again. However, whenever he sees grain, thats another story....

Today was when we got the Big green balls in! And he is very nervous of them. At first he smelled them and then would almost like completely avoid them. I could get him to go up to the ball but he wouldn't smell no it no matter how long I stood there waiting for him to. I tried bouncy the ball a little bit next to him and he froze up but steadily started to relax. However when we left it alone and came back to it later he would become nervous again. The main thing I noticed he doesn't like about the ball is when it is kicked around the arena. He jumps and then freeze for a while making sure its not going to attack him.

We also worked on the Midterm obstacles of course. He was doing much better on the cones and I would ask for less pressure. Then with the poles he started doing really well, but the more we played with it the more lazy he seemed to become so I moved on realizing that he was just bored. Bro. Twitchell then advised us to try something new today. So I tied the lead rope around his neck instead of to his halter for a little bit. Then I did the obstalces and he did so much better that way that he had previously. I think because it was something new and he wasn't bored doing them anymore.

My favorite thing is that he is picking up my energy like crazy!! I LOVE IT! I barely start trotting now and he will pick up into a trot as well. I have hardly any pressure on him to get him to do that.

Did a little bit of Liberty with him in the arena and he caught my energy again and trotted with me! That was so awesome! He even turned with me and I would turn sharply away. He did walk away from me when the arena door opened.

When I put him back in the pen I stayed with him a little bit longer and he didn't fight me when I was trying to get his halter off. He also did run directly to his food as soon as we got in there.

A very informative day!