A Groom with a view

Day 2 of the driveway game. I have changed the name of the game. We are still going up and down the driveway with a rest at the gate end and a nibble of grass at the other end. The game is now leading by the mane which is one of the Liberty games. Its quite interesting because there are many things going on. Interesting how Buzz takes over when he wants to eat leaves, walk on a certain side, smell horse poo even though its his own, or stop at a threshold. He takes over leadership about 60% of the time. I think i might need to be clearer on what we are actually doing and hopefully it will be clearer each day that we play with this. I also need to be careful with my phases when holding the mane, hands that close slowly and open quickly.

Read on the Parelli Tips forum about people getting hooked up on the horn of the saddle when dismounting. I am so glad that i have sorted out my dismounting problems. Basically because i was riding in the Balance saddle i was unable to dismount by standing up in the stirrup before getting off, the saddle would slip. Because i could not stand up in the stirrup i was getting off like a sack of potatoes. With the western saddle i would rate our dismount a 10/10 Buzz waits patiently while i dismount. This is really great as i was getting very worried about him making such a fuss. I did hear what my horse was saying but struggled with the answer.

Not surprising really that because i can now dismount i feel much safer riding. Now have to build my horses confidence in me as a leader in the saddle.