On the theme of attention.

It is raining like the dickens out there this morning.

I thought I would share the progress we made yesterday which is actually a culmination of the last few weeks of us working together.

The farrier came by and we got Pony out of the big pen out back. That left Richard alone. Richard doesn't "do" alone very well. While the farrier worked on Pony [the farrier is pretty slow and likes to stop to talk a lot], I made sure I was there for Richard.

When he got agitated, I walked in and asked him to focus on me. And Richard did focus on me. That's a real confidence builder for both of us.

Later in the day, I took him out to the round pen. Pony was right next to us about 40 feet away.

I've been saying that Richard and I just need to work together and we will be a team. He will have confidence in me and stop looking around so much.

That happened yesterday. Earlier in the week I had made sure that I got big when needed on backing and a couple of other small issues. of course, I take my responsibility seriously to make sure that the horse knows what I want when I do get big. Yesterday, I made sure to tell him "I'm over here, buddy" when he looked away..by gently pulling his head straight.

I had that horse's attention :)

That certainly is a confidence booster for me. I am on the right track here.

And, even though Richard can get pretty worked up over his buddies not being there, he can and does calm down when I go in to work with him. He isn't super buddy sour but this could turn into buddy sour. Using CJ techniques, I think we are nipping this in the bud. When I am around, he is focusing on me and not his buddies.

Sir Richard is a wonderful horse and I am so happy to have him.