Play Day 28th September 2008 @ Mimosa
Well, what a fab weekend! Once again the same group but now we are all more in the QS rhythm with our older horses.
Nik came over after lunch on Saturday and stayed the night as Glen has been in Sydney and her yearling is at Mimosa getting some manners training. We discussed our group and it's summer timing and our invite to join the Prancing Ponies for a Christmas Camp Out. Pending Glen's agreement we will be joining them.
Onwards to our play day! We changed our time to the morning.
As it was the two of us we brought our yearlings in and tethered them out of the way to watch the play day. What a pair of little gems. They stood nicely while we played with Delfire and Aslaan, with barely a peep out of them.
Delfire came to Nik in the 20 acre paddock so that was her first 'ta-da!' Once he was in the arena I was able to get my two as she and Del supervised Zanzibar. My first 'ta-da' came with Zainal's first double lead with Aslaan. He led as if he had been doing it for ages. I left Aslaan ground tied while Zainal was tied beside Zanzibar.
Over in the arena Nik was ticking boxes merrily and trying out the improved obstacle course. I think she spent a good half hour getting Del through every possible combination she could think of in the labyrinth - forwards, sideways, backwards around. TA DA! A big smile from Nik. Onwards to the variety of cones and, of course, the logs and jumps.
Aslaan, my 3yo, was a tougher ask today. His yields from the off side need much more work but we ticked every box up to float loading. Without the Ute, we did not have the float as an obstacle. Aslaan's big moment was volunteering to jump the drums. Up and over with lots of scope. TA DA! A big smile from me.
We took the lads out and let them graze for 20 minutes before letting them go and turned our attention to the still tethered Zanzibar and Zainal.
This part of our play day is not something I would normally do as it is straight up behavioral science, but with just the two of us I chose to do it. The little boys had stood nicely and we took them out for some grazing, then we let them go in the arena. Zanzibar has been noted to not only monster humans, he also has little confidence and play drive. Not only is Zainal his own age, our happy go lucky colt has a huge appetite for play. Whatever happened to Zanzibar's confidence and play drive, no human can teach him to play again, and we feel Zainal is the best horse for the job.
We let them go and I got Nik to sit and watch the equine politics. Which youngster moved which's hooves, which was the dominant yearling and whether Zainal would encourage Zanzibar to check out the obstacles and play with them after half an hour together. Nik was able to get a better handle how horses move each other around, WHAT her yearling was doing to her, why I have done what I have this last week with Zanzibar, and why what we do with QS is so important as a foundation to basic horsemanship, and what she needs to do when her yearling arrives back home. Zainal, of course, played with and moved everything in the arena with Zanzibar following him and starting to check out all these things so interesting to Zainal.
Nik was so inspired she came back to the house and put the 100 Things to Do Level 1 DVD in the video and watched the ground tasks again. :)
Golden Carrot Bravery Award: Nik for doing everything with her own yearling except tether him. He arrived here 2 weeks ago for handling as he was charging her down.
Star: Zainal, for showing Nik exactly how Zanzibar pushes her around as he pushed Zanzibar around
Most Obstacles in the shortest time: Delfire in the labyrinth
Pick Me Award: Zainal, who put his nose in Delfire's halter while Nik was trying to catch Del.
