A Very Polite Young Lady!

So today I tackled two main training angles. The first was tying up practise, and the second was revisiting the leg hosing shaping plan.

I decided as far as the tying up situation goes, that instead of actually tying Faith up, I would put her on the extra long leadrope, passed through the tie ring, and just placed over the stable door. If she pulled back, the rope would run through, and I could catch it and just let it go through my hands, rather than tie her up properly, and have her brought up short.

So I had her attached to the rope slipped through the ring and over the stable door, and picked out her feet while she stood calmly and quietly, then for a few short moments, gave her a little groom, and gave her a scratch while she stood still for a few minutes.

We then carried on with the leg hosing shaping plan. As we had only got as far as the start of step two last night, I went back to the beginning and asked her to target the sponge, and as we progressed, I managed to get her comfortable with the sponge on and around her knee.

At this point we hit a snag. As Faith is a very polite young lady, and so good at having her feet picked up, as soon as she felt something running down her leg, she obligingly picked up her hoof, expecting me to be picking it out.

So my timing had to be extra good, and I had to make sure that I clicked her just before she picked up her foot, so that she understood that I wanted her to keep her foot on the ground. Fortunately, she cottoned on to this very quickly, and soon she was happy for me to run the sponge down to just below her knee.