Whoops!!
Today I managed to get off work early so I was able to sneak in a ride. Dan and I headed to Ashland. I started in the arena with the lunge cavesson and was intending to do our pillar work. My last videos show that he's not really in pillar 1 under saddle like I thought, so I thought that I would try it in hand first to remind him and then do it under saddle. But good gravy he was not having it. I was getting so frustrated. I think I even said to him, in my sweetest singsong voice "I'm trying VERY hard to not be predatory right now, but I want to eat you! I want to cut you up and eat your innards because you are soooo freaking frustrating!". ha ha.. He was just distracted by every single little noise. There was no one else at Ashland, yet he was convinced there was creatures in the woods. And he would freeze, brace his neck, hold his head up high and just completely ignore my pressure. Sigh. I was trying hard. But I was getting super frustrated. I tried grounding myself.. focusing on my breathing. But I was just so annoyed with him. I was able to get a teeny tiny bit. Then I thought, fine, I'll bribe you with cookies if that's what it takes. And it kind of helped. Very briefly. So then I just gave up. I decided to lunge him. Because he seems to get very relaxed while lunging and he tends to lunge nicely in pillar 1 and even pillar 3 it seems. So, I just did that. And sure enough... he was happy and drooling and soft and quiet. We went right, then left, and then right again. It's weird because now I feel like right is his harder way. Anyways, he was doing pretty well. So then I stopped and we tried pillar 1 again. And again he was like "nah... I'm gonna look over here". Seriously Dan?! Still!?! Ugh. We did manage to get a little bit more than before lunging, but still not great.
So then I headed back to the trailer. I was thinking.... maybe I just really need to focus on his connection relationship for a bit. Maybe I need to clicker train this. But it's hard because it's like... when he's focused he's brilliant at it. At home in the round pen the other day he was superb! Yawning.... licking and chewing.. totally relaxed. But at Ashland, he was just not having it. And maybe it is fear/anxiety. I mean... he's such a cocky little bastard and Ashland is "home away from home", so like... really dude!? But... maybe I'm expecting too much from him. Oh well. We'll keep trying.
So I tacked up and decided that I still wanted to do some pillar work. Because I apparently can't take a hint or give up or decide to reward the try and try again later... but to be more kind, I decided to do it in the jump arena. So we headed up and did our pillar work under saddle. I basically only asked for pillar 1 and a handful of pillar 2's. We didn't go anywhere near pillar 3 today. And.. he was better. I was thinking too... I'm thinking I'm doing it wrong in ways, because... I ask him to stay in pillar 1 the whole time, no matter how frequently I have to keep reminding him. But, maybe that's wrong. Maybe I need to be asking... when he falls out.. stop and let him rest. Except, I don't really think it's fatigue so much as distraction. So.. I don't know. But anyways, we got a fair amount of it. I think anyways. I also thought we were doing it the other day too and he really wasn't. We also did a little bit of trotting and he's still feeling pretty decent. I swear, I think he almost does pillar 2 better in trot than walk. Oh well. We played for a little bit and then when he was really good for a small stretch of time... we quit.
We headed out on the trails and went backwards compared to our usual path. And it was fun. We trotted some of the straighter smoother paths. We did some more hills than previously. And we had fun. We did make sure that we were in pillar 1 as much of it as possible, even when we were trotting. It was maybe a little better than last time. Although some of the times he would get distracted.
But we had fun. And as we were heading home, Clay was on the tractor bush hogging in the XC field. Except it sounded like he was spreading gravel or shredding gravel! Dan was aware and alert but not scared. And originally he could hear it but not see it. We just trotted on by when we did see it and he didn't pay it any attention. Good boy! Then as we were heading home I realized that my hips and legs actually looked pretty good today! Early in my ride I still felt like his saddle was off kilter and it was making my legs feel like I was having to push on one side more than the other, so... I raised one stirrup one hole. And I think it totally helped! And for whatever reason (my stirrup change, maybe the fact that he's carrying himself differently now???), my knee was able to face forward rather than out. Hmm... That's cool!!! So then I decided to trot a little bit more to see if I could hold it in the trot. And kind of yes!! yay.
When we got back to the trailer I realized (according to equilab) we had trotted for 12 minutes. Ooops!! That's probably a lot more trotting than I should be doing now. But we split it up so much hopefully it's okay. He seemed happy and not at all resistant or uncomfortable. But whoops!
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