Seriously. Harley lately has been:
Dressage
- Brief leg yields at trot
- Learning to lift his front end a lot more. This has sacrificed nice "bend at the poll", but since it appears this is "success" locally at Training Level, I'm trying to work through it
- Long & Low trot, for longer than a stride or two. It's a slow process. Some days, he really gets it. Other days, pure disaster.
- Quiet trot and canter in hunt saddle, including two point. His canter isn't quite there. He doesn't race off, he doesn't get stupid. He brakes gait to a trot, sometimes the walk. Kid thinks he's going to lose me, and I admire that.
- Trot poles, varying heights. Total success. The more difficult I make it, the better he is.
- Cross rails, trot, varying heights. From tiny low to significant, he's not had refusals or tried to swing around them.
- Canter poles - fail. Epic fail. I think it's the two-point hesitation, along with general "well, I know I can trot these, so let's try that"
- Brief trailer loading problem has been resolved. Yesterday I loaded and unloaded him twice, just to test.
- Plastic bags. He sniffs to them rather than runs away.
- Trotting in-hand. Finally got this!
- Understanding a popping "move your feet" whip to a "desensitizing". We're getting there.
- Chickens? No problem
- Oncoming traffic? No problem
- Barking dogs? No problem
- Deer? As long as they move slowly and don't spring out of the bushes, we're good. :)
I'll post tonight on Mo. I owe a new picture of his leg, and an update of our vet appointment yesterday afternoon.
2 comments:
Do you ever look back to your first posts and realize just how much you've accomplished? I'm in awe, and I say that with all sincerity.
No, but I probably should, you think??
Thanks. It's not easy for me to say "holy cow, I've learned SO much, and I can do SO MUCH more than I used to." Instead, I'm always thinking, "I wish I were better at ___", or "maybe things will work out and I can learn how to ___".
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