Well, it's late, so I won't torture everyone with the full story, but Pro was much better tonight. Since the weather was so beautiful I skipped out of work a little early so I'd have more time to spend with him. I tacked him up in his bridle and stole the barn manager's side-reins and surcingle and took him out. I ran the lunge rein through the bit to be my inside rein and put the outside side-rein on and lunged him in front of the bench. Pro gave it some serious looks, but finally settled down somewhat. I got some really nice trot work out of him. Tightened up the outside side rein a bit and that seemed to help. It actually made it click in my head that he LIKES a firm hold on the outside rein so I shouldn't worry about taking one. Same by the bunny tree, but he seemed antsier over there. So my solution was he got to canter until he was willing to trot as he went past the bunny tree. Hah! (Mary, this was my Pepsi-inspired solution).
So, now my evil plan is downward transitions only in front of the bench or bunny tree and those are also dismount spots. So, after making that plan, I dragged him back into the barn and shocked him by putting his saddle and reins on. Back out we went. He was MUCH better under saddle than he's been. There was no flinging sideways, there was only a little head tossing and all of it was easily controllable by giving the inside rein, giving 'polite' bumps with my inside leg, and opening the inside rein just a smidge to help funnel him into the outside rein. I was hoping to just walk/trot for a few minutes, but he'd be good for a few circles and then test me on if I was going to let him slide away, so we kept going. I was very happy though when at the end we could trot around the ring (off the circle!) and not look at the bench or bunny tree.
Kate and I are both out of town for the weekend, so we'll see how his new improved attitude weathers the break in work.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
YAY!! Good for you....conquering that evil bench and bunny tree!
No profanities = good ride!
Well done! Now...have we figured out what exactly caused the good ride so it can be recreated??
YAY! I'm glad you had a good ride, and had a good note to leave him for a "break" on! I hope things will continue to go well when you guys come back!
Pro needs to come visit us -- we have a whole section of trail between 2 pastures that is bunny-central :) A few trips through there would be some good imersion therapy for his bunny-issues :)
Congrats on conquring the bunny tree and bench :)
Yay! :) So excited that the lunging has worked out well for him. Maybe we'll have to incorporate that into our rides for awhile...
Post a Comment