Yesterday I took time to give all three horses a lesson. We were going to have a despooking session but my husband was going off to work and despooking didn't seem a good idea alone so we worked on making a figure eight around two barrels. I positioned the barrels about thirty feet apart on opposite sides of the round pen. I took Thousand in first. We weren't all that successful as he and I don't work together often.  He tried hard to get what I was telling him but my cues just aren't as clear as my husband's to him so he was left confused. We worked on a few other things and I put him in the stall that connects to the pen and brought Shunka in. Shunka wanted to make an oval around both barrels or failing that to cut his eight so close as to knock the barrels over but we finally got two nice eights and earned him two peppermints. Finally I brought Pony in. Now Pony will not even lunge. Pony is a in your pocket horse not a leave you and do something horse so I had little hope of getting him to make the figure eight. We tried various things without much success. Then I remembered how well he shadows at your shoulder. So I asked him to do that and away we went. When we came to the barrel I stayed on one side and got him to go around on the other and off we went again with him next to me. All this was done with him on a lead. I then took his halter off and tried it at liberty. He did well but was becoming aggravated with me. We ended the lesson just after he had made the second figure eight completely at liberty but with his ears pinned back. He earned his two peppermints but his attitude was I'll do it but I won't like it.  I brought Thousand back then and he did an eight at liberty. He had watched the other horses and learned. 

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