My Moose

I'm trying to remember to just enjoy my dang horse and not be so hard on myself when things don't go perfectly. It's not that hard when it's just him and I and he's paying attention and relaxed and moving well. It's harder when he's being an 8-legged moose and paying more attention to everything else than he is to me.

Today was pretty good. Only a few moments of him being a brat, mostly involving lope-offs and his "whoa" was crap today. I don't know why, but he didn't want to stop when I asked him to. Had to resort to arm strength and loud verbals. I mean, come on, he's 16.2 and I'm 5'4"...I have NO physical power over him. Luckily he generally aims to please so he most always does what I ask him to, he just sometimes acts like a brat.

We've been working on his backing. When I first brought him home he would raise his head and shake it and I'd have to really pull him back. His next issue was when I'd ask him to stop backing and then ask him to move forward he'd continue to move backwards. Now we're doing really well. I can ask him to back and he almost always drops his head and I can let the reins go nice and slack or just give slight give/take pressure and he works off my legs and seat. Now I found that when I stop his backing, if I cue him forward with my heels further back on his body he'll go forward. Not sure if that's how it's supposed to be done but it works for him.

I worked him for a little over an hour. First lunging. I starting aiming him over a ground pole to see what he'd make of it. We'd done cavaletti/ground poles at the trot before so it wasn't like it would be anything new. He wasn't that conscious of it, though and stepped on it enough times to make me think it wasn't a wise thing to do. He kept stepping on it with his inside hind foot and the lope. I had to get after him only once because of him stopping, otherwise he was good. Loped around me with me leaning on the line for a good while.

Then I mounted and he was super good for that. He has a bad habit of walking off as soon as I get on...we're working on that. He's better about that after he's lunged or if he's been outside. Just energy I guess. He rode fairly well. Still wobbly a little at the lope, but he corrected himself when I asked him to, instead of ignoring my aids like he used to. I still think we have the most work to do at the lope. KAT will be working with him a few times this week and I know she'll work on that. I wish I could be around to watch her ride him. I don't have a lesson this week either, because of dress rehearsals so this'll be another non-routine week.

We finished with a walk around the big pasture, neck reining. He wasn't in the mood to jog on a loose rein in the arena today, though, even after a long workout. I was kind of surprised at that. His endurance is increasing I guess.

I won't get out until maybe Thursday or Friday.

I kept his coat off today, too. The weather has been just beautiful.

Oh, and please don't judge me on my grammatical errors. I am actually kind of a grammar/word usage nazi, but sometimes I write too fast and don't bother to read over my blog before I post. Like this one when instead of "don't" in the first sentence I left "doing." Sometimes I type faster than I can think.

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