Post by Morgan on May 25, 2010 15:49:17 GMT -5
NEVER NEGOTIATE working with the halter
The young foal cantered excitedly to the gate while his mother looked up from grazing in the large field. He tossed his head and whinnied while dancing, unable to stand still. Taylor smiled as she stepped up on the first board of the fence and leaned over to pet the large foal. He was a perfect bay, not too dark, and not too light. His shiny coat had already completely shed out and was slick and ready for the summer. Taylor reached down and stroked his neck as he rubbed against the fence. His mother nervously trotted over and sniffed Taylor, making sure she was not an enemy. Taylor stroked her gray face as Ghost nickered softly.[/blockquote]
Taylor was not completely apart of the stables when Point Away was really starting her racing career. She was not originally owned by Riverwood Acres, and started out racing Randomized races so the races that Riverwood Acres ran in were very different for her. She adjusted well and started doing very well in the races, but an injury caused for her to have to stop racing and retire. So far she appears to be enjoying the experience of relaxing and doing nothing all day, and she is absolutely in love with her foal, Nico. Both of them had been living in a nice paddock that attached to the stall Nico was born in, so they could bond more and enjoy the feeling of being out of the stall. Now Morgan and Taylor arrived to work with Nico in a halter lesson.
"How are they doing?" asked Morgan as she walked up behind Taylor and looked over the fence as well. Ghost nickered to her too, curious as to why she had so many visitors.
"They seem very happy," Taylor said, watching her future mount as he took off down the paddock and bucked alongside the fence. They both laughed.
"Allright, lets grab Ghost and we'll start working with Nico," Morgan instructed. Taylor was to be his future jockey, but Morgan didn't like to set things in stone, so she just had to watch how it played out. It was Owen's idea to assign their jockeys to horses. He wanted them to bond more and learn to work together rather than a random jockey being thrown on a random horse. Morgan leaned towards the more traditional side like her aunt did, and preferred to move things around when necessary.
Morgan grabbed Ghost's halter and opened the gate while pulling the halter over her head. She stood calmly and patiently, happy to come inside from the buggy field. Nico returned from his small gallop and stood by her side with his ears perked. Taylor walked into the paddock and closed the gate behind her. She held a small foal's halter and walked over to where Nico stood. Nico stretched his neck out to sniff it, wondering if it was food. He wasn't used to being pet much without his consent, so when Taylor reached out with the halter he stepped back with his ears pinned. "It's allright buddy, its just a halter. Your mum wears one too," Taylor said while pointing to Ghost. Morgan smiled and handed the lead rope to Taylor.
She took the halter from Taylor and walked over to the foal. She held out a small treat which he gobbled up happily. Then she quickly slid the halter and lead rope over his head. He was slightly stunned at first, not sure of what to think of the halter, but quickly passed it up, now staring at the lead rope. Morgan slacked the lead rope and held on to the small chain at the bottom of Nico's halter. She instructed Taylor to lead Point Away forward a few steps. Nico walked as well to stay near his mother and Morgan walked with him. For a while they made circles and all sorts of shapes around the paddock with Point Away and Nico. Morgan picked up the lead rope towards the end of the training session instead of holding directly to Nico's halter. She lead Nico around the paddock behind his mother. Every once in a while she took him off course and urged him to follow her. Some points he did, and others he tugged to get back to his mother.
They repeated this for about an hour, and by the end Nico was pretty tired but he seemed to be getting the hang of the halter. Morgan took off the lead rope from his halter, but left the halter on so he would have more time to work with it while hanging in his field. He gave him a quick pet on the neck and left with Taylor from the paddock. "Next time you can work with him, and eventually we can lead him around the paddock without his mother when he gets older," Morgan said to Taylor. Taylor agreed as they both looked back at the young foal prancing around his mother, urging her to play.