Charm and I went to the local rider's field yesterday. This is good for exposure for her, as a two and a half year old Icelandic Horse filly. She gets practice with trailer loading, trailering, tying, and seeing new things.
She also has free time to run around and check out the arena, and express herself :-).
The first time she saw the jump standards, she'd walk around them to get to me. I encouraged her on-line to walk over them. Now she's at the point of being able to trot over the low ones.
She also got to wear a surcingle for a while.
There was a new item on the property, a big black drain pipe, which she had to smell and touch (click and treat). Then I asked her to come over it. She had to make a couple of tried, first one front leg, then back up and try another front leg, trying to get coordinated, and she was able to walk over it.
We practiced "the send". Instead of leading her over or thru obstacles, I'd "send" her over or through. The pictures show her being sent over a low obstacle, and thru corral gates.
She went over the Ugly Bridge. It's painted a few different colors, strewn with cut vegetation.
We walked the trail, passed this jump, and after we passed the palm, she turned back to look at it. I guess she wondered what those "fingers" were, and if it was something she needed to worry about. Her default behavior is to stop, look, and touch, to "know" what it is.
