Daniel got in trouble today!!!!! Hee hee... You know it's bad when I call him Daniel! ;) We're having a lesson with Beth tomorrow so I figured I better get him back in a learning mind set. Good thing I did because he was in a play mindset! I took him to the trailer which was parked in the front yard and groomed him. He was behaved for that. Then I walked him onto the driveway to measure him while I still had Peri's measuring stick. Holy smokes!!! 15.3 and a half at the butt and wither! And still not quite 2. Okay... I'm VERY happy with 16.2 to 17 hands, but after that... stop growing please! I'm thinking that's exactly where he'll end up though, so... fingers crossed he doesn't have another big growth spurt before he turns two!
So then I decided to lunge him in the front field so that I could trot him over some ground poles. I made the mistake of taking the dogs out with me. We got started and he was fresh and Emma was chasing him so he kept pouncing on her. And then trying to bolt off. So I finally got her tied to the fence and went back to him. It took a LONG time for him to quit being so rambunctious but he would listen. And I was able to keep him from getting loose every time so he never won. He settled down and would lick and chew and then try again, but each time he went longer between tries. Finally he calmed down and was listening and we worked on the transitions and commands. Then we moved over to the other side of the field and trotted over two ground poles. He's getting it!!! He got lots of praise when he was good, because of course.. when we moved to the other side he got rowdy again.
But it does seem to be more of playfulness than true nastyness or lack of work ethic. He's just trying to see how much he can get away with. And he's smart and enough of a people pleaser that he figures it out. Of course I could be biased, but... I think he's going to be phenomenal! :)
So we did some more work on transitions to end on a good note after the trot poles and headed back in. I let him graze in the front yard as a reward while he dried off. We both got a little sweaty.
So we'll see how tomorrow goes. He's usually much better in the round pen so I sort of purposefully pushed his buttons today. I think the plan for tomorrow is to work on long linging/ground driving some more. Yay! Maybe eventually I can get him steering with a bit and can take him and ground drive him out at Ashland! He's just still a little bit too strong for me without the chifney and since the chifney rubs him, I don't want to use that. And I don't want to give him the opportunity to realize he's bigger and stronger than me and get away. So... we haven't done much ponying. Though today I realized how much I LOVE rope halters! So perhaps we'll try again and bring the chifney along just in case.
I do love this kid though!!! I have a feeling he's going to be phenomenal!! And a ton of fun... but lots of excitement :)
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