8/4/07
Niles at Greenwood
Shirley rode Niles along as we schooled
the cross country course at Greenwood.
She said it was great, because she could work
on his standing still and going away and coming back
from the group. She also found the jumping interesting to watch.
Niles works as well in Western tack as English.
 

Niles was excited to be out with all the horses around, but waiting for everyone to mount up, Shirley walked him away from the trailers and ask him to focus.
When the horses in the group started cantering around, and Shirley was asking Niles to leave the group and go behind some trees, he got anxious and acted up a bit. Shirley put him on a circle and made him walk out, and he settled down.
Other than that, she was free to watch the people jumping and Niles learned that he wasn't always the center of attention.
 
When they stood and watched the group jump, if Niles decided he was tired of standing, Shirley would make him bend, or put him on a circle to remind him of what his job was. I think it was tougher on Niles to stand and watch everything, than it was on the horses who were always moving around and jumping stuff.
He did get to follow along.
 
While we were working on a jump, she'd take him off and ride him around in a different area to work on leaving a group of horses and being on his own. She said he'd get really slow, but no acting up.