2011 – Rock & Roll – 9-26-11 – GROUND DRIVE HAYFIELD

9/26/11: Rock and Roll did their respective workouts through the hourglass pattern in the hayfield on the harder flat surface today. At first, both mules didn’t realize they were supposed to do the hourglass pattern in the hayfield, so it took a few times around the cones to get them to pay attention. Rock seemed to have less difficulty with the poles with his booties on out of the sandy arena. I suspected this and wanted to relieve him a little so he would stop the paddling. It did seem to work. Then I ground drove him through the pattern and he did very well, taking an even contact on the lines and stepping with a rhythmic and regular gait. Roll did well through the pattern on the lead line, but did get a little lazy in spots. When he was ground driven, however, he had difficulty taking an even contact on the lines which made his gait very irregular and snaky. Roll is still lacking adequate forward impulsion. When I tried ground driving them together, Roll’s irregularity spooked Rock off to the side even though Steve was leading Roll from the near side. To end the session on a good note, I removed Steve from the near side of Roll (on Rock’s left) and stood between the two of them and led both while Kristen held the lines behind. That worked fine and we ended on a good note, but since Kristen was driving, there are no pictures, only video.