I was reading Mugwump’s latest post and I realized that Paisano needed a bit of a tune up on this front. So last night we worked on it. After a short bit of chatting with other boarders, I took him straight to the round pen, still dusty from rolling.

Paisano tried to snatch bites at his favorite weeds on the way over, then when I let him loose, he meandered over to a spot where he could reach more weeds. Instead, I sent him out at a trot. All he gave me was a little jog. I had my lunge whip that gives a nice pop and he got it laid over his rump. “NO, I want you to MOVE!” was the message. At first, I had to step into his space half way across the round pen. At one point, he kicked out twords me and that got him a response that really woke him up! I reversed him repeatedly for a few minutes.

By the end, he was responsive to all voice commands and would canter energetically until I asked him to do something else. He’s gotten into a pattern of just quitting and even slowing to a stop recently. I had slipped into the habit of always asking him to keep going, rather than expecting him to stay at any gait/speed until asked for something else. I am not going to do that anymore. My expectations are changing. I just don’t want to work that hard! Today was the beginning of that.

At a good whoa with him parallel to the fence, I asked him to come into the center. Then I gave him a good once over with my hands and some stretching and a little massage. That was his reward for the good work he gave me at the end.

On whoa in the round pen … I do not want a seasoned horse to turn to face me. This is just my preference. I know that many people always want their horse to ‘face up’ to them. Since my basis is in dressage, lunging, long lining, etc., I want a horse to stop where I ask them and not move their feet any more. If that means facing perpendicular to me, that’s what I want them to do. If I am driving, it means facing away from me. Whoa means “Whoa right where your feet are now,” not “stop and face me.” It’s hard to retrain them not to face you, when they are on the lunge line. In long lines, there is more control. Still, it can be frustrating during the transition time, where they think that is what you want. So I likely differ there from most of the NH world. So be it.

We went on to have a nice ride in the arena, where we worked again, on maintaining speed and responding to the first cue. I’ve decided to ride him primarily bitless, as he has a scar on his tongue. He’s just much more comfortable that way. I rode in my rawhide jaquima, that I’ve been using on the trail. On trail rides, I ride on a loose rein. In the ring, I experimented with contact and he worked well, giving me some ‘on the bit’ moments.

I worked in hand some on stepping under with the near hind foot. He has a harder time with this on the right. That flowed well into some lateral work. He tends to offer more sideways and less forward that I want. Or maybe that is me not getting my cues correct. Either way, we had some improvement there.

It’s supposed to rain all weekend, so I am not sure that I will be able to get any of the long rides at Pisgah done that I wanted to. I had laid out a training plan for the next six weeks until the Foothills ride. This three day weekend was going to be a great opportunity for some long slow miles. I guess I will have to get used to the rain… Today I am wimping out and working in the studio instead. Well, after I’m done with this blog post anyway!

I'll leave you with this photo of Lily being a good mom. She's telling Vinie to keep away from her baby.