Here's my update from Tues and Thurs. I've been very busy at work so blogging hasn't been a high priority. :)
Tuesday Pro gave me the same rushing crap that he'd given Kate on Monday. We didn't ever get into a discussion of who gets to dictate the rhythm though because he was also being very defensive/angry about the inside rein. So I spent most of the ride reintroducing it to him. Biiiiig opening inside rein until he relaxed into it and then hand forward and scratch his neck. If he didn't listen to the 'come here' gentle reminder next time he started to set his head/neck then he got the big reminder again. As he relaxed his head/neck the rushing mostly took care of itself.
Thursday I decided I didn't feel like getting into a pissing match with him so I dragged out ground poles and put them in a "W" shape with the points cut off. So it was 4 poles that angled towards each other. This let me pick the stride-length I needed by aiming for one edge or the other and gave me the option to do 10m circles over half the poles. Pro was certainly looking for a fight 'cause he came out rushing again. And then promptly planted his feet and tried to spin away from the oh-so-scary poles on the ground. It was extra stupid of him since I'd walked him over the poles on the way into the barn to get tacked up. He enjoyed going over them and relaxed himself during the 10m circles over them without me having to do massive inside rein reminders. I've started working him on longer reins (3rd stop on web reins) so he doesn't have to collect as much and am mostly focusing on getting him to stretch down and over. He wasn't going over as well as I'd like, but he was, on average, better than Tues I think. I was mostly just very pleased with how quietly he went through the poles and handled being asked to turn in/out halfway down the line of them. He's very much NOT a point-and-shoot horse about anything resembling a jump so I was happy that I could channel him over an 8' pole set on an angle approaching from an angle!
Still no lessons set up for us and Kate's now out with the flu. With this weather though lessons are nearly impossible. I imagine Pro will get the weekend off and hopefully we can start riding again Tues next week.
5 comments:
Sounds like a great way to get Pro back on track and to stop all that rushing.
Ooh - Pro put his drama-llama hat back on for the pole exercise, huh? Glad you were able to work him through those terrifying poles.
Sounds like you did a great job working through the rushy-rushyness. I love the sound of that pole exercise! If it wasn't so gnarly outside I'd be heading to the barn to try it with Tango...
At least I can "ride" him vicariously through your posts while I recover. :) I like the stretching and the pole challenge! It keeps his tiny little mind active.
It sounds like you handled everything Pro was throwing at you very well! That pole exercise sounds neat, too.
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