Pepsi, the Tractor, the Rope Halter, and the Round Pen

Today was a very big day for Pepsi! It was the first time he got worked in the round pen in his brand new pretty purple rope halter!

I didn't get a chance to work him saturday or sunday after turning my recovering ankle over early saturday morning and thinking I was going to possibly die from the pain. (I mean, I went out to play with him late saturday afternoon and had to sit down for 5 minutes just from walking him in the barn! I haven't had to do that for MONTHS!) So, he was a little up from not being messed with for 2 days, but nothing bad...just very energetic!

Then, MR. TRACTOR shows up! We have tobacco fields across the street from the barn, and almost directly across from the round pen. Pepsi was still being good, but he spent so much time looking that I finally let him off the lead and asked him to go. He went tearing around for about 2-3 minutes and then I started asking for changes of direction. Well, he had to pay attention and THINK in order to do those. Still, he wasn't really paying attention to me so after he got more tired back on the lead line we went. Then 2 or 3 sirens came racing down the road in a matter of minutes....THEN 15 minutes after that one of the mares started SCREAMING (and continued to scream for the next hour!) because her herdmate went on a trail ride. All of this was very hard to ignore, so I decided to start asking him for changes of direction on the line. Then for some haunches over, then some shoulders over. THEN I started putting it all together....back up, change directions, turn on the haunches, circle, circle, circle, whoa. Back up, circle, circle, circle, trot, change directions, shoulder in, etc. It took a few minutes but once he got the idea he was REALLY good. He tried to evade in the backing a few times, but quickly learned that wasn't acceptable! The rope halter helped a lot in this- it really gave pressure when he needed it and immediately released when he was being good.

Anyway, we got one REALLY nice 90 degree turn-on-the-haunches and a few nice sidepasses, so after those I quit for the day. He wasn't as soft as I would have liked, and he kept cocking one ear and had an eye on something else, but he was COMPLETELY responsive the moment I asked him for anything, so I figured that was good enough for the day. My ankle was REALLY starting to hurt by this time too, so I figured all in all he had been good and it was time to stop.

We ended up working in the round pen for over an hour, but I got some nice canter transitions, lots of changes of direction, and some nice lateral work. He was really very good and really seems to respect this rope halter. I'm finding that because he responds better to it, it's actually helping me fine-tune my body language because when I ask for something I know I have the power to back it up, unlike before. So Pepsi is starting to listen to me BEFORE I need to use the pressure that I can get with the halter.