I added two more colours to the curtain, put the balloon popper in the metal stand with the “curtain/alias garrocha” pole, blew up a pink and a yellow balloon, put the mailbox on the tall pedestal (with support for the hind end) and brought Zelador into the arena.
He was really good. The only thing he needs to improve on is backing under the ribbons at liberty. Under saddle he did forward and backwards under the curtain very nicely.
I rode around the arena, halted, tapped the kickboard (to make noise), tapped the window, tapped the maracas, tapped the overhead tambourine and popped the pink balloon. No problem. Rode a circle and popped the yellow one. Got off, put up two blue ones. They are louder. No problems.
Zeloso’s turn. He was full of mischief. Yesterday he knocked over five chairs, one after the other. Today he said, “The curtain is way too challenging. I’ll run around it.” After a while he got tired of running and walked through the curtain…with treats and a clicker rewarding him. Under saddle he was fine.
I put up two yellow balloons (I ran out of pink ones. I have a new bag of pink balloons in the van) and could not pop them for the life of me. I kept trying and trying. I think we approached and stood still at them at least five times. Finally I wedged the balloon between my foot and the kickboard and the sucker finally popped. Talk about having the horse REALLY close to the noise-maker.
I put up two blue balloons. They popped LOUDLY. No problems!
Pax opened the mailbox this morning but sucked at carrying the mail to the pedestal. However he did some really good bows without making me wait an eternity. Several times I placed the carrot on the pedestal under his belly. I thought he just might “pull a Zeloso” (do something smart-alecky) and step back, lean down and eat the carrot. BUT, NO, he stretched his neck/head between his front legs and tried like stink to get the carrot. Of course his nose is upside down…so I fetched the carrot and when Pax stood up I handed it to him.
