Make him run....

I was talking to my friend L (momtodandt) today, while R was out trying to catch Blaze to ride him. I was watching R as I talked and Blaze was being ornery... He wouldn't let her catch him, but just kept walking/trotting away from her each time she tried to get the lead rope around his neck.  

I told L what was going on, and she said we needed to make Blaze run... We needed to teach him who is in charge, and if he wants to keep moving away from R and the lead rope, then we need to KEEP him moving. If I'm understanding correctly, it puts us in charge of his movement... not him. 

 L said she wanted to see pictures of how exhausted we were when Blaze was finally done running and let us catch him. 

 So... L, this post is for you. 

 As soon as I was off the phone we went out to catch Blaze again. Sure enough, he trotted away from us... So I started swinging the lead rope around and made him run. He ran and ran (and so did we!), he kicked up his heels, ran up and down the hill and around the pasture. The goats had no idea what was going on but they were so excited they ran too (also kicking up their heels), until poor Betty started coughing and I told R to put them away before I tripped over one of them. 

 And Blaze just kept on running. We stopped every once in a while to see if he would let us walk to him and put the lead rope around his neck, but each time he moved away and I swung the lead rope and he was off again. Finally Blaze stopped running and let us put his halter and lead rope on. All three of us were tired and sweaty. 

 The whole experience almost finished R off...

 

 ...but she had just enough strength left for this victory photograph. (imagine the Rocky theme playing right now)



Thanks L for the help, we're going to go back out this afternoon to catch him again... we'll see how he does. (R thought taking the "almost dead" picture was too funny... it's a miracle she kept her giggles in long enough to take it!)

 

 Please excuse me while I go take a nap...