One of the nice things about training dogs as opposed to horses is that it does not hurt as bad physically when you get bucked off but I think that the mental toll can be just as high.
Yesterday I took Ricky out to the open field here at home for the first time since he came home from Marc's. In the past we have had some blow ups out in the open field that I had not been able to overcome, hence why I sent Ricky down to Marc's. Everything has been going great with him, it's not been perfect, Rick can be a handful but I have been able to overcome any adversity and move on and he did great out in the open field at Bob's this past weekend.
Well, not yesterday, big wreck, imagine the colt running through the field bucking and kicking as the rider lays stranded in a heap... We had some bad moments while getting the sheep out of the yard and to the field, but each was overcome with good work and I actually felt that Ricky was learning his way through the encounters and getting better at managing the sheep through all the nooks, crannies and hiding spots. Eventually we were driving them down the driveway, Ricky very relaxed and myself with a aire of confidence, maybe too much confidence.
I had Ricky drive the sheep out into the field and noticed a couple of slips of communication between he and I where he went into business for himself. I corrected him, thought I had things working right and called him off when the sheep were about 200 yards away from me in the field. I should have known that I was living on the edge when I called him back to me and he was floating to my left instead of coming straight back, but I ignored it and accepted it, bad move....
I set Ricky up for a outrun going off to my right, he went off great, but the sheep decided that they were going to make a break to the left straight across the field to the left. Ricky bent out and around and went behind a slight rise where he lost view of the sheep. I tried to stop and redirect him but he would have none of it and landed where he thought the sheep where, which was now behind them with them moving off away at even a quicker pace. I tried to stop him, instead he went into high pursuit mode and took two sheep down before getting to the back side and sending the sheep flying back toward me. Did I mention that this was a big field, soybean stubble, wet, greasy...not fun.. Cue the bucking horse reel.
Well, I'm now in full correction mode, walking Ricky down, really wishing I was horseback, would have made it easier. Ricky was still high on adreneline and ran out huge, he had to be 1/4 mile off the sheep, better then trying to run past me to the sheep. I walked the other way, he stopped turned and ran out huge a different direction, boy did he remind me of both Jake and his momma at that moment, I've been here before.... The sheep decided that they were going home, I let them, continuing to walk Ricky down. He disappeared off around the back side of the property, I figured that he was going to go around the barns and come back up at the front drive so I started the hike.
As I came in from the field I was surprised to not see Ricky, then I turned around, her he comes trotting along in a straight line right to me, he assumed his position just to the left and behind me and we came in together from the field, without me saying a word.
When we got back up to the barns we gathered the sheep back up, moved them over to the "L" pasture so that I could get closer to my work and regain some of what I lost. Rather then doing easy stuff that I know Ricky can succeed at I worked on things that he and I struggle with and looked for places where he was changing what I wanted to do into something that he wanted to do, and made some gains.
So, today I need to get back in the saddle, we need to get back out into the field and get a good ride in and hope that I stay on the top side.
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