Horse Training part 3

I have had a break from training Arakei because of adverse weather conditions and other interruptions of life. Yesterday I was feeling energetic, the weather was ok AND my boss had told me she wanted the jump stands I was using. I got some sacking and cut it into three or four strips and hung it onto the "Terrifying Face Flapper" I also built a little jump, about fifteen inches high, and decided to make use of the "Revolting Puddle".

I had brought Arakei with me and he watched me set all this up and then obediently followed me around and through the obstacles. Only a slight difficulty with the "Revolting Puddle". I decided he needed a harder task and went and found a small tarp and weighted the corners with bricks. He had a little sniff at it, tried walking around it but when that received no rest, he walked on a stood there. This brand new obstacle was over come without a halter and without batting an eyelid.

Today I added a wooden board raised onto bricks, again he did not bat an eyelid and followed me first time without a halter. The whole Obstacle Course ran like this. We trot over the jump, walk through the "Terrifying Face Flapper" over the "Tarp of Crackling Death" around a corner then over the "Scary Wooden Board" and a circle around a single pole then halt.

We completed it a few times then I came and invited my boss to come and watch, she was meant to be studying but seemed ready for a break and came to sit on the fence to watch. In spite of an audience, he was perfect and did everything calmly and nicely. She suggested teaching him to stand with his front feet in a tyre (The Tyre of DOOM it shall now be called). We thought it would be comparatively easy, BUT apparently he either didn't understand what was wanted and became frustrated, or it is more scary then I thought.

I put the halter on for the first time since starting, and helped him to understand what was wanted. Eventually he stood with his front feet in the tyre and we did the Head Down to relax trick. After that we stopped and he went to his paddock, that way we finished on a high.

Another suggestion was getting him to walk over the "Scary Wooden Board" as a seesaw. Since he had issues with the tyre I will leave that one till we have conquered the "Tyre of DOOM"