Whisper's Rail Video

As promised a video of Whisper working over the rails. This seems to be his favorite activity so far. When I was warming him up away from the rails he moved over to them on his own and started working. He prefers trotting over them and is very balanced, placing each foot precisely in almost the same position as the previous round. Next we’ll add a surcingle to the mix. Once he’s used to that we’ll add the bridle (provided I can find one to fit) to get him used to responding to the bit. By bringing him along in this manner that first ride should be a non-event.



We’re still working on gait cues, leg yields and half passes and he’s coming along well in those areas. He no longer throws his daily hissy fit – guess it wasn’t any fun if all he got out of it was going back to work. While he prefers working in the round pen – and we have to use that for now as that’s where the rails are – he’s improving in the arena. A lot of his general spookiness is gone and I have to wonder if some of it wasn’t for show. If I throw up my hands and move toward him quickly while we’re working he will quickly spin and move away as if I scared him. When we’re feeding we generally give them their grain, then a carrot, then dessert (alfalfa). The horses know this and move over to the fence by the bales at that point in the ritual. They can make it difficult to get into the pasture so I usually try to shoo them away mainly by throwing up my hands and moving quickly towards them. Whisper has adopted the same ‘yeah, right’ demeanor as the other two. So, what ‘scares’ him in the round pen doesn’t in the pasture. Gotta wonder.