Small Victories

Doing the obstacle challenges has really forced me to step up my horsemanship and focus on getting the little things good.  Last year I began sidepassing Cat more and she got really good at it - so good that she started to anticipate what she thought I wanted and would sidepass all of the way off a log when I only wanted her to sidepass over one step.  While her sidepass was good, I could never get her to sidepass over an object if I tried to start her next to it vs. straddling over it.

Sunday was an absolutely gorgeous January day in Iowa with temperatures reaching nearly 50*.  I had hoped to put a pole next to the fence and start the sidepassing process over from square one (exept with a pole there) in an attempt to get her to sidpass over a log without starting out straddled over it first.  The arena was a muddy, mucky mess and was slippery so I decided to forego this until another day.  Instead I worked on getting control of all of her feet one step at a time.  After about 1/2 an hour I decided to take her over to the obstacle course and line her up with a log on the ground.  Instead of asking for the sidepass I just sat there and let her take it all in.  After a bit I asked for one step towards the log.  I could feel her wanting to move away from it so I slid my leg back and got one hq step towards the log and then released.  Then I asked for on fq step and then..........we were over the log!

I sidepassed her back off of the log and started back over making sure to take plenty of time to reward each little step, and each little try.  I attempted this several times until she finally stepped towards it without hesitation.  For Cat and I this was more than a small victory - this was a huge victory.

Our first competition for this year is just a little over a month away.  I have a lot of work to do and only 5 weekends to do it in.