6/24/09 Stickie Lesson

The first hour or so of Ransom's lesson went, um, great! He was a little stiff in the corners, but when I didn't concentrate real hard on them, they went pretty. I worked through what I could remember of all three upcoming dressage tests.

We played at the canter, a handful of transitions, heading all the way around the arena. I found Ransom to be more forward on the long sides, but not out of control. Seemed like he was really enjoying himself.

Jen got on Ransom, rode him a little bit walk, halt, back up. They played for about 10 minutes.

And I got back on - to work on the halt & back up. That was about when Ransom shut down. He had decided he'd worked for a bit over an hour, and that was "lesson over".

I rode him, for, oh about another hour. Walking, and every time I'd ask for halt, he'd throw his head up. I pushed him into a good solid trot, and left him move out a while, then asked again. Same head tossing reaction.

Jen grabbed side reins & a lunge line. We set side reins at 8s, and she lunged the fire out of him. Ransom wanted to go go go. He was trying to do anything he could do to quit paying attention to her. She made it entirely clear to him that "whoa" meant "whoa", and nothing else.

After another 20 minutes, he was moderately compliant, and we called it a day. Ransom worked for about 2 and a half hours. He was hot, sweaty, and miserable. It was well after 9:30 pm before he was chilled enough to eat supper. Both of us were exhausted. A long day for me, and a really long evening for both of us.

Homework -- ride a while, dismount, "take a break", then get back on & work again. Lather, rinse, repeat. Continue until the little fart learns that work is only over when I say it's over, no matter how belligerent he gets. :)