PolarSkye
Well-Known Member
. . . in a good way 
.
So, so pleased with my boy. Had a lesson with Tracey Lawson last Monday, but then put my back out so haven't had a chance to practice . . . but have been hacking, long reining and lunging him . . .
Our homework was to get him to cross his hind legs over to help him engage . . . both on the ground and under saddle . . . this is something I've never tried with him . . . have always been told by trainers that he can't/won't do lateral work without throwing his toys out of his pram. Um . . . not so! Gave me a perfectly passable leg yield and shoulder in (both ways) today. Yes, we lost the outside shoulder at times, and yes my aids could have been cleaner but the point is he tried . . . no toy throwing, no massive tension (yes, we did have a distracting spook at a pigeon and we did jog as an evasion at one point, but he tried really hard to do what I asked) . . . what an honest, clever boy.
Honestly, he is so far away from the nutty, almost unrideable boy we had at that little yard a year and a half ago that he's unrecognizable as the same horse. He's happy, willing and relaxed in his work. He hasn't reared in about five months . . . he does still worry and give the occasional spook but they're more "startles" than the full-on, halfway across the arena jobbies we used to get and we still struggle with the whole hacking alone thing, but we'll get there . . . I'm just so thrilled with how far we've come already.
I. Love. My. Horse.
P
.So, so pleased with my boy. Had a lesson with Tracey Lawson last Monday, but then put my back out so haven't had a chance to practice . . . but have been hacking, long reining and lunging him . . .
Our homework was to get him to cross his hind legs over to help him engage . . . both on the ground and under saddle . . . this is something I've never tried with him . . . have always been told by trainers that he can't/won't do lateral work without throwing his toys out of his pram. Um . . . not so! Gave me a perfectly passable leg yield and shoulder in (both ways) today
. Yes, we lost the outside shoulder at times, and yes my aids could have been cleaner but the point is he tried . . . no toy throwing, no massive tension (yes, we did have a distracting spook at a pigeon and we did jog as an evasion at one point, but he tried really hard to do what I asked) . . . what an honest, clever boy.Honestly, he is so far away from the nutty, almost unrideable boy we had at that little yard a year and a half ago that he's unrecognizable as the same horse. He's happy, willing and relaxed in his work. He hasn't reared in about five months . . . he does still worry and give the occasional spook but they're more "startles" than the full-on, halfway across the arena jobbies we used to get and we still struggle with the whole hacking alone thing, but we'll get there . . . I'm just so thrilled with how far we've come already.
I. Love. My. Horse.
P
.