A project for winter

So not sure why the picture is sideways, but this is the project for winter! A big red ball, courtesy of Margie as a Christmas present. Margie and Roberta put the effort into inflating it (which was quite a task in itself), after which we rolled it outside along the gelding paddocks. This was cause for a great deal of excitement! It may not have helped that there was a very frustrated little dog pushing the ball around in the snow barking in frustration as she couldn't pick it up...but the geldings all swarmed like fish as Margie commented, in unified fear of the big red ball. Well, all except for Wolfgang who used the distraction to get a prime spot at the round bale feeder. Even cookies could not entice the horses to come closer!

As you can see, Wiley seems to have made peace with the ball, as has Shawn, but Magnus almost sits down if I roll it by his stall!

I figure step one is to get the horses comfortable having the ball around, and then we will worry about teaching them to push it, then to push it through an obstacle course, with the ultimate goal of teaching them horse soccer. My hope is that this will help certain unbrave equines to learn to face their fears, and also to work on precise steering and body control. Plus, it will be fun I think!

Karen