Sleepy head

The bad weather at night must be getting to Max, because he could hardly keep his eyes open this morning.

It took ages for him to get up after I’d finished the yard work, though I didn’t insist or rush him. I stayed in his box with him, though, and watched him rubber necking, like those tired old commuters on trains, eyelids drooping, head nodding, nodding, nodding and OOPS back up, eyes struggling to open, then head nodding, nodding, nodding…

I stroked his forehead and sung him Kookaburra very softly, and he dipped his nose to the straw and made little snores. Aww!

I was considering whether to give him the day off after our hairy weekend, but once he rose to his feet, I decided to do a bit of loose work in the indoor school, just to stretch his legs and have a bit of a laugh together.

We were working on “head up!” with a lift of my hands to get him to stand a bit taller (he was doing a very slouchy walk) with click/treats on response, even just a little lift did it. He seemed to be catching on pretty quickly to that, so something to work on.

I also tried to get him to follow my own body language, but really stretching tall myself, and lifting my legs higher, and although surprised by it at first, that seemed to work, too, and he started strutting beside me. Might have been my imagination though, so I’ll have to try again.

Basically, I’m thinking that he was reflecting back at me what I was giving him. When I moved with more energy and held my body “proud”, he seemed to do the same!

YO came in with Turbo on a pessoa, so I put Max’s head collar on and worked a bit more on whispered transitions, but our groove was gone, Max was distracted and so was I, so we cut it short and headed back to his box.

Met K on the way. We stood and chatted for ages, with Max yawning and blinking in the sun, and occasionally giving me a nudge, but basically being a well behaved and co-operative pony, who seemed happy to chill with us.

Relentless heavy rain called for tomorrow. I’m not looking forward to it, but hope to long line Max whatever the weather.

His leg is looking a little swollen, but no sign of infection.