Aziim 2

It's been a week since I took Aziim out. I spent the week thinking, reading, thinking, reading, stopping by Aziim's pasture and looking at him, calling him to the fence (in vain) and going in to the pasture to say hello - he ignored me completely. Once he looked at me by the fence, bent one ear back, and deliberately turned his butt towards me - I swear I saw him roll his eyes at me first! When we played last week, I couldn't get him to lunge and when I rode him, although he did what I asked, he really wasn't that interested in me.
Monday morning I stood by the fence watching him and Paris munching their hay and he pinned his ears back when I said hi. Hmmph, I thought. Fine, I'm taking your hay - so in I went and stood on his hay and told him to get back. He backed but swung his head around and said "hey, you can't take my hay, get off it!" Stood my ground until he went around to steal some of Paris' hay, watching me while he munched. His head came down and I gave him a handful and a scrub on the neck and said "See you soon, Aziim." He watched me leave and I think I saw him thinking...
Wednesday, Kathleen and I went to get him - she showed me how she puts his halter on after leading him into the indoor arena, she showed me what groundwork she's done with him. Mister and Marie were working on the rail. She led him around and I watched them, he was nice and calm and a bit interested in Mister and listening well to Kathleen.
I took him and showed her how I couldn't get him to lunge - he's fast and turns to face me! Took my new Easter-present dressage stick and went right behind his shoulder, pointing with my leadline hand, gently waving my stick up and down in the other hand and stuck to my position at his ribs like glue (man! the boy is fast!) and off he went - lunging on the leadline. Whew! Worked on that side (left rein) until I was able to send him off in a pretty good circle around me and get a nice halt and walk again. He heard a ton of "GOOD BOY!s". Then the right rein - much more difficult! Kathleen showed me that he prefers you back to his shoulder on that side, so that was trickier to get started. More dancing and backing to face me! Man alive! We did get it done but I didn't get the nice circle and halt yet on that side - another day. I could get him around me but I had to stick close! He will lift his head over mine to move away but I had my helmet on and he banged his chin - the first time it sounded like it hurt but the next two times he didn't seem to use as much energy. He asked me to take off that helmet but when I said no he seemed resigned and didn't do that again. For today, anyway!
Then we had a nice grooming session, he was just shy of perfect with his feet - only once did I have to tell him he'd get my elbow in his shoulder if he pulled his off front hoof away and I can touch him everywhere - more "GOOD BOY!s". He has a scrape on his off shoulder, so Kat went for her bag balm and rubbed that on. It was dry and not sore or warm - he said Paris did it but she denies it. He showed me how he likes to nip at Kat while she was holding his head so we traded and I pinched his muzzle when he did it to me - ha! He only did it twice. I felt again that he was thinking about this new lady.
Put his side pull on and hopped on. Kept to the gate end of the arena and walked lots of circles - no straight lines longer than four Aziim lengths. He paid good attention to me while still looking around at Mister and a couple of deadly-looking sunbeams. He moved off really well and didn't stop at the gate or anywhere - nice! Tons and tons of "GOOD BOY!s". He doesn't always like his ears touched so much so while I'm sitting there on him, I rub his neck and make my way up to his ears - he was surprised when lifting his head up gave me more ear to rub! again, Ha! He will let me move my legs all over him while I'm up there and we're standing and he stands really nicely while I scrub him everywhere I can reach.
We did this until supper time which he had in a stall. Then a free lunge in the indoor, very nicely done and outside we went with Shelley and Willow. My first time outside with him.
He was very, very good! I stuck to 1/4 of the arena, doing tiny, medium and larger circles from that corner to the gate to the middle of the arena. Nice, nice boy!! He stood nicely watching Willow sometimes while Shelley and I talked. He stood nicely when the walkie talkie in my pocket started sounding like Auntie Lynn. (I had a tiny stroke myself, but he didn't care - just listened). The only time he gave me any attitude was when he could see that Khol saw something deserving of notice - the trail riders were coming home. We did a couple of quick circles and he could watch as long as he kept moving where I asked. What a GOOD BOY!!
So that's it. Long blog about just walking.
My legs are tired - inner thigh, above the knee. I forgot to turn on my GPS thingy. We just walked. I have no idea if what I doing with him is really inspiring respect from him or just giving me confidence. But, for me, my second day out with him was fabulous and I loved it.
GOOD BOY!