Zuni - oh my oh my!

That's not Zuni, that's Sarah on Tuff.

Day three of the clinic and this morning we were working cattle. My horse Zuni was pretty ok at it but it became so clear that even in walk and jog he is actually still in halt in his mind. I spoke to Mark about how to break that huge brace he has in his mind about moving forward. 'Whatever it takes' is basically the tactic we came up with - the horse is no use to us as he is, and he is not a lot of use to himself that way either. So Mark got on Zuni and basically rode him through his halt in a very determined way to the point where Zuni was ready to go the second he was asked. It was impressive riding and the timing of the release when Zuni went forward was perfect. I needed to see the self belief and commitment in the way Mark works - I know that is what I have to find too.

After lunch it was my turn, and hey guess what, The Zoonster was pretty ok. Once he realised I wasn't going to accept no forward he started to come through for me with a bit more purpose. One thing I have really picked up on here this week, is if the horse knows what the job is then pretty much he is more than happy to do it - my job is to make his job clear to him. I spent an hour or so riding him around, just trying to get a more instant (it's either instant or it's not, right - you can't have more instant, can you Vicus) and definitely forward response as soon as I asked for it. Tomorrow I aim to continue the work and add in a couple more things - watch this space.

Meanwhile my dear wife Sarah has been having fun riding her horse Tuff ( think that's his name, not sure). She looks pretty nice on him and has him going nicely too. At the end of today's session we went for a nice ride around the place side by side - awwwwwww, almost thought I loved her there for a moment!