Rodney likes poles. He likes them upright as weave poles. He likes them horizontal as cavaletti. (Three of four pictured. Parallax makes it hard to get a decent picture of the whole series.) While he doesn’t like the cavelletti quite as much as the weave poles [Speciesism], he has been known to give a lap & chew after trotting over them on the lunge line.
Last weekend, I sat on Rodney (!) and walked over them. As we came down the side of the ring, he put his ears up and looked around the corner toward the cavalletti. ‘I know what comes next!’ We are a long way from galloping around a course, but there was a whisper of promise.
Later in the weekend, we added a pole on the ground between standards to the circuit. Our first step into a larger world?
Yes, I need to speak at my ground crew for leaving the cups up and empty (& me for not noticing). We were planning to lunge Rodney after. He worked so well that we went home instead. It was walk-only, but we managed sufficient contact for decent circles and a steady pace over the cavalletti. He did not curl his neck up like a salted shrimp [Positives].
Subdued Kermit dance.
References
Headgear [View]
Mane hack [Zap]
For the non-geek speakers among us, quote.
Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott
Virtual Brush Box 
Subdued hooray!
Or perhaps he likes the new glasses.
Rodney hasn’t met the new glasses yet. Rodney likes that we have unkinked his neck kinks.
😉