Taking on new things...

Finally Spade is improving more and more each day. Today was the day of desensitizing. It was MUCH cooler today than it has been so I was able to work with Spade longer today then usual. He was still super flighty when I walked in the pen but I ran him around a few laps and he finally relaxed. I walked right up to him and put the halter on. I continued where I left off yesterday and started with the off side drill. He was way more responsive today. In fact he didn't even give me the chance to get the rope over his hips before he would turn. I noticed that he has become very light on the halter especially in the left and right. I am hoping that will translate over to the bridle later. One time he turn so quickly that he rocked his hips right in to the rope on the opposite side. This made a figure eight around his body. He started to panic and run off but after a stride or two he slowed to a trot and stopped and looked at me. He is finally getting it. After that I over and over continued to tangle him in the rope and let him figure his way out. He seemed to be very light hearted about it. He even asked me for help a few times. It was nice to see him thinking.
Since he was using his brain, I pulled out the tarp. Last week he swore this was going to kill him. Today with in a few minutes I could send him right over it. He is still learning to follow me over it though. I was on a roll...so I pulled out the huge bouncy ball. This has been in his pen from day one but he has tried to dodge it the entire time. After rolling in around and bouncing it for a while, I started to roll it toward him. He would shy a little but let it bounce off his legs with out any crazy responses. I really was interested to see what he would do if it rolled into his kick zone. Try after try I worked on provoking him to see if he would kick it. The most I got out of him was a few pinned ears and a raised foot once or twice. I was proud to see that he isn't relying on his hind feet as much. After the ball we pulled out a flag. I made it out of super shimmery material and he didn't like that at all. The first time I waved it across the ground and he jumped a foot in the air. I waved and waved by the end of the session he didn't mind it that much at all.
So tomorrow Spade will get a break. I am headed to Texarkana to a barrel futurity and I won't be back until Sunday. So as much as I hate to, I am going to miss a day or two. This is a perfect test to see if he has truly changed to a thinking horse. Our challenge to you today... try at least on new thing.  You never know, it might change your life.