Sunday I went to the barn to play my first "game" with Jester, The Friendly Game. This game builds the foundation of everything I'm going to do with my horse: trust. It explores whether or not Jester trusts me or if he thinks I'm going to sneak something bad between us.
Most horses are wary of a human holding a stick, and often for good reason. Jester, on the other hand, seems more concerned with halters than sticks. I started off walking away from him while dragging the stick on the ground between us and Jester largely ignored it and tried to catch up with me. It's a little disappointing in how well he took to the stick rubbing him all over; I would have learned more had we had to work harder to get him to accept the stick. I would like more approach and retreat and reinforcement and reward, but he just stood there. There were a few spots that he twitched at when I touched him but after a rub or two, he decided it was all right.
In thinking about this, though, it occurred to me that I can approach his dislike of spray bottles in much the same way as the Carrot Stick: have him approach the bottle, spraying rhythmically, and then work up to him accepting the spray bottle in Zone 1, 2, etc. Now to get an empty spray bottle so I don't blow through a whole bottle of fly spray! :)
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