Water crossing part 1

In the back field, there is a shallow drainage ditch that fills up with water in the winter time. It still remains grassy, but the water flows through fairly well making about a 2.5 foot wide and 8" deep little creek. It's like a long puddle with water that flows through it. And a perfect opportunity to work on water crossings!

Tall rubber boots are a staple this time of year so the thought of a water crossing for me was not even a questionable activity to do without getting my feet wet in the process. So I set out across the field to cross the water. Flash walked along side me as he always does and I continued forward right into the water and Flash’s feet came to a screeching halt. I made it to the other side and Flash was not in the slightest bit interested in putting his feet in to join me on the other side. So much for the brave and bold, go anywhere little boy. So here we are with another opportunity to practice all of our ground work exercises. I took him away from the crossing and worked on sending him forward in a specified direction. This is an exercise which he is quite familiar. So I reminded him about the cues and what I expected. Then we gradually moved our circle down towards the water again and asked for forward, and forward he went until he got to the water then it was stop again and stare and then sit back and launch across! Wee! well there is the willingness to go, which is good, but there will be times on the cross country course when the water will be too wide to jump and he will need to get his feet wet. However, it quickly became evident now that he had figured out he could just go over the water there was really no reason at all to even consider walking through it. It was starting to get dark and we still had a good walk through the field and up through the woods to get back to the barn, and while I do carry at least one flashlight with me, I did not particularly care to try to negotiate a young horse and a light on a walk through the dark woods.

Since he was willingly going forward across the water (even if it was not through it) I decided we could end on that good note and revisit crossing water on another day.