🚫 Auto Pilot

The work we did the other day was all about 🚫 auto pilot while riding and working together. Some obstacles are so easy for Tweed that he can do them while thinking about something else. On the trail, however, that can be a bad thing. 

For example, once we were going down a steep hill with loose rock and Foxy got way ahead of him. He thought he could walk down the hill and think about Foxy, but it felt very unbalanced and dangerous to me riding it. (It was.)

Today was about facing the bridge and waiting, at every obstacle, for next job. 

We did a couple easy obstacles to start, then went straight to the “broken” bridge. Tweed hesitated for a second, but then walked on with me, pretty relaxed, but walked off of it half way. 

I considered that a big win, made a big deal of him, and went off to a new obstacle where I could put more pressure on him than at the bridge. 

Tweed was feeling pretty good about himself (and his ability to say NO) so he said no. 

I put pressure on him to face it. He backed away. No. No. 

We spent a little time doing that and then he jumped it. I made a big deal of him. We did it again. He jumped a little less dramatically. I made a big deal of him. Eventually, he walked over it, which is all I had been asking. We went on to other obstacles. 

The car wash. He had to walk in and stand and wait.

The log obstacle. He had to stand half way over it and let me take a photo. 

A few more obstacles, yay Tweed, you’re a rockstar! Then back to the bridge. 

First pass, up he went and stood for me. Second pass, other direction, same thing. Third pass, fourth pass, fifth pass. Yawn. 🥱 boring. 

And just like that, we were done. In all, maybe 15-20 minutes. Then back home before the unbearable HEAT. 

There was no need for more. He checked in. He waited. He went where he didn’t want to go, onto the bridge. I forgot to say, he even stepped onto the teeter totter bridge, which will be our next goal.