Saddling the savvy way

Well work got in the way of play for 2 nights this week. Not to be outdone though I got home last night and played till it was so dark we both had trouble seeing!! I played with Scout first, took me 20 minutes to get him to want the halter on without trying to frisk me for carrots. I get a whinny and two ears every time I go to his paddock. He's got a HUGE play drive and is very mischevious!! I love this. So finally I was able to put his halter on without him trying every trick in the book. Then decided that if the haltering was an issue we wouldn't leave the paddock till we got some things sorted out! So we played in the paddock and off he shot like a rocket, Star was watching, so I think Scout decided to show Star some of his tricks! Well the tricks were, pull on the human in the circling game, go right brain and put your tail up and snort like mad! So I played my savvy arrows like this....I used a little tree to get more whoa in my rope, so when he took off he took off around a tree and then the tree stopped him not me.....he was so shocked he turned and spun and faced me and licked his lips and chewed. I sent him the other way from around the other side of the tree and off he went again! Then he did the darndest thing, he went aound the tree, spun, got the rope around him like on the most recent Parelli DVD with Linda....I didn't panic like I might have done in the past, I waited till he stopped, sorted out the rope from the tree, then asked him to sort himself out from the rope. He did, no panic, no nonsense he just stepped out of the rope and then calmly went on the circle as light as a feather, when we went right brain again he had to sort himself out over some rocks, and a little hill, at first he jumped the whole lot! He has a BIG jump!! Then as he thought more about it he stepped nicely over and then eventually when it all got too much he stopped and looked at me. It was nice, I reckon we got closer just from that lesson and I am so glad I kept it in the paddock! The play in the arena was great. We found things, jumped things, got our long range sideways more soft and then we played with the saddle! I have an old Wintec which is just as well as he rubbed on it, pushed it and generally used it as a scratching post!! The saddle blanket got stepped on, nibbled, nuzzled and pushed. He spent about 5 minutes exploring it. He was obsessed with it!! Then we played saddling and he really has NO ISSUES!! YIPPEE!!! Tonight I am going to try for putting the saddle on and doing the first of the riding games if that's the way the lessons go. I have also started using the games on the site here, so we started to practice yo yoing through barrels, around barrels and then we did send through the barrels. On the weekend for both of them we are going to play with the float! Star was next, he was in a very playful mood. We did falling leaf, circling and then we had a huge SPOOK at the saddle....it was nearly dark mind you! At the end of the lesson he wouldn't sniff the saddle but would stand over it. HOW INTERESTING!! He did everything I asked and we had great fun, he's a different horse to Scout, we still have a way to go with friendly game but porcupine is so light, driving is getting better and sideways...well we are going to tackle that today. Our short range is fine but I want to look at our long range and then we will go play in the paddock for something different. Jazz is not forgotten, I spend lots of undemanding time with her. I talk to her about what I am doing with the boys and she looks as though she thinks it's all very funny. Jazz too needs confidence in me so on the weekend I am going to play quietly with her around the float. In the end I hope to have them all sending at liberty onto the float. That will be a while away but we are getting closer every day!