10/7/10 Harley and Romeo

Had a quick ride on Ransom (going through pieces of tests, and checking transitions), and unfortunately, it's gone from the memory banks. I don't remember anything really all that fantastic. Just a steady go..
Anyways...

Then I grabbed Romeo, cleaned him up, gave him a strong talking to, and tied him up. I walked into Harley's pasture, gathered him up easily, and did more of the same. With Harley secured, I put Romeo's western bridle on, and really told him how it was going to be.

I grabbed Harley's lead rope, and hopped on Romeo. I tried ponying Harley from Mo. See that word there? Tried? Yeah.. Harley wanted to follow follow. In no way did he want to bring his head up close to me, or Mo. Without much reaching or fussing I was able to scratch his head a few times, but Harley's behavior made it pretty clear he didn't want to get too close to BossHoss Romeo. Made me wonder what exactly they've talked about in the pasture these past few weeks.

To get Harley realizing I can control his feet from atop Romeo, I pushed Romeo into his hip. Sure enough, Harley moved away from the pressure. Did a little on the shoulder, with the same results. So we walked on again. Walking, walking, halt, walking, halt. All the same results, even with smooth direction changes, but Harley didn't want to come up close to Romeo.

I asked for the turns again and movement away from pressure. Harley resisted. I smooched to him, no reaction. I pushed Romeo forward towards him, still no movement. Hmm.. now what's am I going to do?

I pushed Mo directly into Harley's hip, and said, "Mo, help me out here." Mo attempted to nibble Harley's hip. Harley squeaked, and moved right away from it. I laughed. Goodness Mo, he's a horse, not a cow! I pushed Mo up into that hip again. Romeo apparently thought a lot of himself right at that moment, and reared up a bit off the ground before pushing Harley away. Again, I laughed.

We walked around some more, forwards, halts, backups, more turns on pressure, and I called Harley done. With Harley tied patiently, I put Romeo through some good solid trot-whoa work, and some tight turns, along with a couple steady rollbacks.

So the ponying work was done with decent success. On the downside, I wasn't in my saddle, so I couldn't really push for perfect. On the upside, I was wearing my helmet, and I stayed "sunny side up." .