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- #21
freemotion
Food Guru
Just got in from walking Dorian and I realized today that he needs to learn a recall command. So I will start with some treats in my pocket and condition him to "Come!" for emergencies. Like letting go of the leadrope by mistake while he is dashing towards the highway. Eeep. I tweeked my back grabbing for the end of the rope, but I got him before he even knew he was free. I also learned....keep both hands on the leadrope at all times. This happened as we just got to the xmas tree farm about a hundred feet from our gate, and he was in high spirits and leaping like a colt. Yes, cars were slowing down again, as he definitely was not moving like a dog!
Today we climbed a mound of dirt and he found some leaves growing. Looked like dock to me, so I let him eat a few and I picked some grass for him. Just a taste. An hors d'oeuvres of spring. Even though we are having "unseasonably cold" temperatures right now.
We upped our walk to about 25 minutes and spent a bit more time on a shorter lead. He splashed through shallow puddles without much hesitation today and showed a lot of interest in both the pond and the stream. It is still far too muddy to go near the edges, though, without getting my boots sucked off, so that will have to wait. He was rather intrigued by Biscuit splashing along the stream, having a great time.
He explored some sap buckets and seemed to notice his surroundings more today. It is so different from leading a young horse, which would likely be spooking and trying to run away from every new thing. This is easy. So far.
I think I need to make a halter for him...not sure when, but I did look at a few pics online to see how they are made. Looks pretty simple, and I think I have enough stuff here to make one. I also saved some harness pics and know I can make one of those, but won't bother until he is closer to full-grown. They are quite simple compared to a horse driving harness.
Today we climbed a mound of dirt and he found some leaves growing. Looked like dock to me, so I let him eat a few and I picked some grass for him. Just a taste. An hors d'oeuvres of spring. Even though we are having "unseasonably cold" temperatures right now.
We upped our walk to about 25 minutes and spent a bit more time on a shorter lead. He splashed through shallow puddles without much hesitation today and showed a lot of interest in both the pond and the stream. It is still far too muddy to go near the edges, though, without getting my boots sucked off, so that will have to wait. He was rather intrigued by Biscuit splashing along the stream, having a great time.
He explored some sap buckets and seemed to notice his surroundings more today. It is so different from leading a young horse, which would likely be spooking and trying to run away from every new thing. This is easy. So far.
I think I need to make a halter for him...not sure when, but I did look at a few pics online to see how they are made. Looks pretty simple, and I think I have enough stuff here to make one. I also saved some harness pics and know I can make one of those, but won't bother until he is closer to full-grown. They are quite simple compared to a horse driving harness.
