Patterns? With HIM? NOW?

Had a pretty good lesson tonight. He hadn't been worked since Sunday so he was a bit fresh, but he lunged it out pretty quickly. He's coming into frame faster and faster now so I'm encouraged that he's "getting it." There was even a moment that KAT said "Wow! He is going to be cuuuuuute in Hunter Under Saddle!" Of course I thought to myself...but I wanted a western pleasure horse :( BUT I am certainly okay with doing HUS as our first goal and then moving on from there. I KNOW he can do the WP it'll just take him longer to get a lope down. His jog is getting better and better. Actually everything is SO much improved. He's still a little clumsy but I'm getting better at checking him and correcting him before he gets too tangled up in his moose legs.

We ended the lesson with a simple pattern that we've done before...it's actually the ONLY pattern I've done on him so far. It's blatantly clear that he is NOT pattern-ready, which is expected. He may NEVER be an equitation horse...or he might be a fabulous one, either way he'll still be okay.

He was doing super well until I stopped him and had to wait for the other two riders to do their patterns he wouldn't frame up and was sticking his nose up in the air...

The pattern: Three cones. Start at A. Jog to B. Lope Right Lead in circle back to B. Jog to C. Stop. Back.

Our FIRST attempt tonight: Our path is in blue...note the "bonus" gait.

Our Second attempt:

Our last attempt:

And it was probably not that round in reality, but it went something like that.

Much improvement, certainly, but yeeesh. Times like this I REALLY miss my Banee. She could do anything when she wanted to. I didn't realize at the time how good she was at quick transitions. Sometimes she was TOO quick, but so much fun to ride. Imagine ME doing a series of two stride flying lead changes. That horse was such fun. And at 29 she's STILL fun. I rode her this summer and she was just as wonderful. Out of shape, of course, so we didn't do anything fancy, but when I asked her for a canter it was like riding a carousel horse. What a girl!

Maybe I'll write more about her tomorrow.

Back to my Jr. He spent lots of time with the lunge line clenched in his teeth so I couldn't try the suggestion/comment about feeding him more of it. He's got his jaw clenched so tight I couldn't get any more in there. Hopefully like his "OVER" verbal command he'll eventually get the "LET GO" verbal and I won't have to pinch his lip until he lets go. He's a REALLY smart horse...perhaps too smart. :)