Le Dude, part 2

I had a great afternoon visiting the little pinto and playing with him for about an hour. He is just as cute as ever and getting quite bold as far as crowding into the handler's personal space. I don't know his 'horsenality' at all, so my play sessions are like getting to know you events, where I play friendly games and then see how he responds.

He tends to anticipate being asked to go into circling game and at times would take off on the circle, pulling all the rope through my hands till it got to the end and I would let go.. After a few times of doing that I would interrupt his running off pattern with a big wiggle of the rope and he would immediately come in and stand next to me -after trying to bulldoze me with his shoulder first. I would porcupine him back a step or two then he would stand calmly and lick and chew a few times. It was interesting to watch how he would calm down quickly after being so fired up. Then after the calm he'd get frisky again.

The circling game and friendly game that I mention in this post are two of seven games used in the Parelli Natural Horsemanship methods. My brief definition of the games is this: they teach us to communicate with horses in a respectful manner in a language they understand.

August 2005


July 2006


October 2006


April 2007


The B side
All photos taken by my friend KM ☺