Brave pants pony!

As we were wandering down to the school the other day we noticed that Karen’s 7.5T ‘proper’ horsebox had the ramp down because people were using it to practice loading. Dino has never been in a large box before so we took the opportunity to have a go! He wasn’t hugely impressed with the idea but a bit of targeting and clicking and we got up the ramp!

We did it twice. He was reasonably content to stand whilst I was faffing with the phone to take a photo but you can see he’s not completely relaxed. There was no force needed though, I gave him lots of time to think and just let him come to the target so I’m really pleased he felt able to trust me enough to do what I was asking even though he was unsure about it. Clever pony <3

Other than that this week has been pretty quiet. He had three nights off in the end, one scheduled, one due to bad weather and one due to me being an idiot and writing him down to be turned out even though I didn't want him to be! I feel like he's improving though. His in hand ST work is improving and his ridden lateral work is beginning to come. We did a bit of cantering in the field on Sunday which gives a bit of a more forward canter down a longer straight line which I think is helpful to build some stamina so I think it's all going the right way. Still not managed to get our hacking as my schedule has been nuts though! Hopefully soon.

Plan for this week:
Monday - didn't happen as a traffic accident stopped me getting to the yard
Tuesday - ST/CT tonight I think. We did a brief session learning to stand on a mat on Sunday which I'd like to do more with.
Wednesday - day off
Thursday - ridden schooling
Friday - day off
Saturday - field/hack ride
Sunday - pole/jump work. We really need to do some jumping again!