The Hardest Parts

It has been about two weeks since I came up with a plan to fill in the holes and work towards 100% (impossible, but a worthy goal).  How is it going?

Well, we haven’t made much progress with the teeter totter bridge, but his work on the normal bridge has improved. He wants to please me, and has found the standard bridge work to be his “okay” spot now. The teeter totter will continue to be a work in progress. 

We had a trail ride today, and when we showed up they were dragging the arena. 

That made him nervous, so we went to work right out of the trailer and then over to saddle when he was relaxed. 

We have been working on saddling because he had a habit of taking a couple of steps away when I threw the pad up. 

(Here he is another day we worked on it.)

I brought him back to where I asked him to be (it took two times) and then he stood perfectly still for the saddle toss up. 

Same thing today, corrected twice, then got the stand still. (First photo) That was a very easy issue to correct with Tweed.

Let me just say, there is so much he is doing awesome! He loads, unloads, walks out on the trail, doesn’t try to run back to the trailer, and leads out when asked. He bushwhacks like a rock star, too. He has one issue: rushing down hills. 

He didn’t do much better with the straight steep ones today, even with all our work, but I did take him over to the side and descend in zigzags through the brush and over down limbs and logs, and he did awesome.  He was watching where he put his feet, being very careful, and lifting up his hind legs super well. 

All of this has given me more information and more ideas. He is anxious about steep hills and wants to rush through them, rather than pick his way carefully down. 

He is fit enough to accomplish hills, though still unsure how to use his body. 

When I take him out Thursday I’m going to go back to the steep hills and work them in sections, starting with the bottom half. If he rushes, I’m going to ask him to stop, then back up. To slow him, I’ll use one rein to ask for a subtle direction shift. If he rushes to the bottom, I’ll put him to work at the bottom and then do it again.

The more we do them, the more I understand what needs to be done next. I like the idea of letting him build confidence with the zigzagging, but some hills just don’t allow it. 

When we got back to the trailer we went into the arena and did some collected trot work. Oh. My. Goodness! Like the bridge after the teeter totter, he did so much better at collection after the trail ride. It was like floating on wings. He was really engaging his hindquarters and almost zero resistance. It was just beautiful. 

In other words, when you go for that last 10-20%, the previous 80-90% gets better, too. 

The fact is, the last 10-20% is the hardest, and slowest, work of all. Filling the holes takes everything I’ve got. But it will also reap the BIGGEST rewards.