"I shall bite the blue plastic 'wall' to let it know I mean business!"

So, Sport has not had any work for the last few days due to the cold, wet weather... but today I decided to work on getting him to go in between a tarp "wall" and the roundpen (a "chute" of sorts).  As expected, he snorted at the tarp when we walked into the roundpen, but didn't think much of it, except giving it the "hairy-eyeball" a few times when he walked near it. He was not really paying attention to me, was more concerned about where the other horses were and whinnied for them once, so we did a few easier exercises to get him focusing. We serpentined through some cones, one of which he snuffled, then bit, then knocked over with his nose... he then of course, did a soft snort then an "in-place" little spook because he made it fall over... I put the cone back up and he snuffled it again and sighed...

We then did several passes between the tarp and fence line in both directions, with the tarp about 3 - 4 ft. from the fence. (As an aside, I got the tarp to "stand up" like a wall, by using three of those plastic temporary fence rods/posts, laying the tarp over the rods and holding it in place with some bungee cords.) And then I had him back through both directions and stop while beside the tarp. It was amusing  when I'd unhook his lead so that I could readjust the tarp "wall" closer to the fence (so that it was about 2 1/2 ft from the fenceline). He's standing right there snuffling the tarp and me, nibbling grass... I had him walk in between the smaller "chute" a few times both directions, then back-up, then stop quietly.

You can see his concern in this pic... concern for grass!!

Hmmm, this sounds crinkly like a feed bag, but doesn't taste good!

I wish Sport was as quiet about other things (like going to horse shows! ahem!), but he'll get there, I hope! Next time, I'll put the tarp closer to the fenceline, wash, rinse, repeat... Then block one end of the "chute" so that he can go in, but has to back out... and then we'll work on having the tarp over parts of his body etc. I figured getting him used to the tarp first before putting it on him will help... we'll see!

You can see the utter excitement on his face in this photo. :-)