Like he was for Andrea, Pro gave me a slight bit of attitude on the crossties tonight. It was as I was brushing his foreleg so I have no idea...anyway, he got Mom's full wrath so I'm pretty sure he got the message. He may not be the best horse under saddle, but I'm at least mostly pleased with his ground manners so I like to keep those sharp, if possible.
I'm pleased that he's gotten SO much quicker to respond to outside aid cues, especially when I give slightly on the inside rein. As soon as my outside leg and rein comes on, he turns!! It seems so subtle, but it really is significant. Gayle's new mantra for me is "When you control the outside of the horse, you control the horse." I try to repeat that in my head everytime I apply my outside aids to make him turn. And also gently wrap around my inside leg at the same time, rather than counterbending. Counterbending is okay, says Gayle, at this stage, as he's learning that it's now the OUTSIDE aids that turn, not the inside. But we gradually want to introduce straightness, then true straightness, which means slightly bent to the inside. So we're working on it.
Within a few minutes of doing the outside aid turning at the walk, including a few quarter-turns at the walk, he was quite contemplative and chewey on the bit. We had a scooty walk by the bunny tree but then he settled down to business. He's also back on the Magnesium since last Friday so maybe that's helping. :) The trot followed the same way, especially because I was concentrating on my light posting (or I like Alex's term, hot potato posting!!!) and keeping my legs off of his sides to get him to lift his back. He was pretty content to swing along and start engaging that topline. I tried bridging, but he really wasn't in a bridging mood tonight, so I just tried to imagine that I had them bridged...that worked.
We also did some light cantering. Last week's lesson was one of the rare lessons where Gayle's actually had us canter. And true to the whole "Restarting Pro" project...we literally ARE restarting him. Because this whole honestly using his back thing (key word, honestly) is new to him, we're cantering in half-seat, using a wide opening inside rein to guide him. It's exactly like when I helped start Sadie and we taught her to canter.
The only glitch tonight was when I asked for some sitting trot. His ears were tuned back to me as I played at the walk, and then asked for the trot. Then I gave him a light bump-bump with my legs and he actually pinned his ears (he NEVER pins them, EVER), I tried again and he kicked out. Whoa! What was that?! I re-gathered him up at the walk, posted for a few circles, he seemed okay but slightly annoyed, then gradually started sitting again. Hmm. I checked his back and it wasn't sore, so maybe he's just going through some general pissy-ness? He was fine the rest of the ride and his usual sweet self on the crossties after, so it was just that one moment.
Andrea comes to visit tomorrow while I ride so we'll get PHOTOS. :)
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2 comments:
It is awesome that he is responding to the outside aids so well! Can't wait to see more pictures! Are you going to get one of the scary bunny tree? :)
we havent had Pro pictures in a while. Haha, and get one of the bunny tree!
Yay for him really understanding and responding to the outside aids. He is a smart guy!
I hope he is ok, did you run your hands down his legs to see if he was hurting there? Isnt that where he acted up when you brushed him? If it really hurt him, he probably would have been pissy the whole ride.
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