Outward Bound: Day 3

Today I noticed a great improvement in all the animals. No one really objected to the bridge or got nervous about big trucks. They all were quite eager to see where the destination was. I rode Tobiah and Cracker Joe the last hundred yards, and I put my foot in the stirrup on Jemez Dancing.

Chester was the first one to go and we tried working on an oil well pad in a little dead end canyon. It was a fantastic place, but three peregrin falcons flew in and registered their disapproval.... well, yes, that would be their nest on the cliff above us, so we left and I didn't take anyone back to that spot.

One of the things that has everyone leading very nicely is that I have this exercise for them where we are walking along and I say "ready" then on the next step, I bend my knees just a little and say "Whoa" as I stop (Check Klaus Ferdinand Hempfling about the body language). If they stop immediately and take one step back, they get a reward. My animals follow on a very soft feel and stop the instant I say "whoa". We practice this A LOT. I want that whoa/stop so deeply in their brains, that it will be totally automatic if we ever really need it in a bad situation.