As you know, we are trying to install a nice forward trot into Shadow now. He is making great progress.
My lesson on Wednesday with Dom went well, but I slacked off the rest of the week. I stopped out with William yesterday just to give Shadow a kiss and say hi, but that was it.
After a busy day Shannon and I ventured out to the barn. Shannon and Nikko working on "ho" and doing it when he is asked, not 4 steps after the word leaves her mouth, and me, working on the usual. Trot, half halt, trot, half halt, trot. He does absolutely great to the right, we made it all the way around the ring without really "losing" it. I only had to bring him back a time or two from his crazy fast trot/pace thing. To the left however, totally different story.
We start by walking around in a nice frame on the rail, then we proceed to trot. We start out very nice and framed, and trotting slowly. Then when I ask him to pick up the pace I get the big forward lurch. Sometimes I think that lurch is going to be the death of me. He always seems to do it while I'm mid post and I fly forward, lol. We just kept trying, but couldn't seem to get it, so we switched back to the right. Trotted around the ring again near perfect in that direction again, so back to the left we went.
Getting a little better, but not much. After about a half hour of just trying to get a real trot out of him, and stopping and re-framing and trying again, I got a little aggravated. I asked him one more time for the trot, and he lurched again, this time I let him ride through it instead of stopping and asking again. I couldn't seem to get him to hold a steady trot, just a pace. He seems to think he has 8 legs and isn't a horse, but an octopus and doesn't know where his legs go (this is a very interesting feeling!)
I haven't cantered him, ever, since he has been with me. Dom and I have discussed taking away options, and pace is not one of them. His choices with me are walk or trot and his choices with Dom are trot or canter and I didn't really want to change that, being that he doesn't really know how to canter well. He was just giving me such a hard time to the left and I felt myself getting more and more frustrated. I asked him one more time for a trot and he picked up very nicely, and I thought to myself okay maybe we have it now, but I thought to soon. I finally gave in and said okay this fast "eight legged trot" is not working for me, and I proceeded to ask for the canter. I got 3 or 4 beautiful strides out of him before he broke back into the trot, so we stopped and took a walk. After our little walk around, I tried the trot one more time and I GOT IT!
I made my own circle instead of using the whole ring because as usual, we needed to end on a good note. So I used about a quarter of the ring, and concentrated on his movement. I gave him small half halts whenever I would feel him tense like he was thinking about falling apart. He did it, thank god.
Needless to say, I rode for probably about an hour, which is more than I usually do when Dom isn't present and I feel like I got hit by a bus. I do not feel like the last time I was one a horse was Wednesday, at all. I am learning to concentrate on everything, me, him, and everything else I need to do while I'm up there. Since half halts and leg yields are the most important right now, I've kind of given up on steering. Terrible, I know.
I mentioned this to Dom on Wednesday, and she told me it's okay! I was relived to hear that, I have to be able to half halt at the right moment in order to bring him down, I have to keep pressure on him through my knees to keep him moving forward, and keep my inside heel on him to keep him some what straight to keep him from dropping his shoulder. All of this, for a person who has no coordination makes adding in steering at this point a little difficult. Once we get the trot down, I will go back to that, its already there, he just needs a little direction.
To finish our ride, we did some bending exercises as always, he even does it by himself when I stop and give him a break because he thinks it means we're done and I will get off of him. Lol, he is such a funny boy.
I'm so excited to see him progress in every ride, maybe Monday we will start to the left and end to the right and see if there is any improvement there.
Goodnight all.
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