One Trick Pony

Still working on feeling better.  Did barn chores today and it was uneventful.  Compared to the last time I did barn chores, I will definitely take uneventful.

I didn't have enough energy to ride the Semi Feral Mare, so I went ahead and grabbed the mini me version instead.  Her eyes have been weeping, so some medication for her.  Lucky pony.  She was thrilled.

I went ahead and let her loose in the arena.  She seemed more interested in following me around again, so I decided to drag some "obstacles" out for her to look at.  Hey, if I can't ride the horse yet, I might as well introduce some more crazy things for her.  Who knows, maybe this one will be the least feral horse I ever own.

I put down a few ground poles, which are a non-event.  But to increase the level of difficulty, I wanted her to voluntarily go over the ground poles herself.  This is where the SFM would fail.  She would rather hide in the corner than go over the poles.  The filly on the other hand, seemed happy to trot over the poles.  

I drug out the tarp and put that between the poles.  OK, now I had the "what are you thinking" look.  She knows tarps and has been on them since she was quite young, but it doesn't rank in her top five favorite objects.

However, I stood on the tarp in-between the trot poles and I soon had my own personal stalker hanging out with me. 

Personally I think she just wanted to see me trot those poles over that tarp and laugh first.

When she was younger, I introduced the barrel to her and on a line, she would push and sniff at the barrel a bit.  I wanted to see if she would remember doing any of that and volunteer to do it loose.

I think she passed that one.

One of our most routine ones is for me to stand on the mounting block and to have her line up.  I tried to get video.  Not sure if anyone else can see anything.  Let me know.  Now I just have to convince her to line up the other direction.

So folks.  More insight.  What else should I teach this trick pony?