Rosie 2nd week 09/04/2010
 
This week we seem to have mastered some of our ground manners so we started riding.  1st day we went to the round pen and she liked to put your leg into the wall just like she did on the ground.  2nd day we went to the indoor arena, and after looking at some things, i decided to tackle a few. Pulled a tire out from behind the fence that she had been looking at and also pulled out a tarp and spread it on the ground.   After dragging the tire with me on the ground, we walked over the tarp and proceeded to also walk over it while I was riding.  She never got comfortable enough to drag the tire while I was riding.  While attempting to take a picture of her standing on the tarp, I realized that you must enforce that the word "whoa" does not only mean stop, it means stand still.  This is very important if you think about dealing with stressful situations.  Kid broke to me partly means changing the way a horse handles stressful situations. They are a natural fight or flight creature, but will follow another horse through such situations. Thus you must make yourself a trustworthy lead mare, so that when you say its ok to go somewhere, they don't make it into a stressful situation. 
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