Fall Back

Clock's changed this weekend, so it's now getting dark at 5:30, and until December 21, will continue to get dark earlier and earlier.  What does this mean?  Just as the clocks have fallen back, so will my horse play time.  =(

Only one class today, though, and we soaked up the sunlight hours playing.  Did some Zone 5 driving, which went well until I asked for a canter.  Played a lot with going over jumps, which went really nicely.  Canter on the 45' line is also getting better.

I rode, too.  I've always though Cal moves fine in my Ansur saddle, but I spend a long time on Sunday playing with him not reacting negatively when I went to put the saddle on.  Today I used the natural performer and got almost no reaction when I put the much heavier saddle on, nor did I get much negativity when I went to do the cinch.  In fact, Cal was so loose, I pulled the cinch nearly up to where I normally get it after a couple tightenings, and the back cinch right up to where I normally put it.  Fascinating!

Onto the ride itself.  Started with some passenger lessons.  Walk, trot, and canter.  The canter was cool because Cal would change directions, and although he would break to a trot, he would almost instantly pick it back up with the opposite lead.  This was bad for me, though, because it put flying lead changes on my mind.  I wasted some time trying to get flc's from my unprepared horse.  Not very smart.  I need to watch the dvd and follow the lead change ladder I'ver heard about.

Anyway, Cal was feeling really good, so I thought maybe I could play some approach and retreat with riding outside the arena.  Opened the gate while riding, which was cool.  Cal seemed confident for about a minute.  Continued walking around softly, listening to me.  Then either I blew through a threshold or should have retreated to an arena, but he suddenly dove for the grass in a frenzy.  I had to go to phase 4 to get him to lift his head so we could hurry back to the arena.

Once there Cal was quite extrovertedly, right-brained.  Hmmm.  I considered my options.  Get off and get him more confident.  Or attempt so see if I could help him regain confidence while riding.  As we took off cantering circles around a barrel (I only asked for a trot), I wondered if it was going to happen.  Cal was bracing really hard against the rein, not thinking about the circle at all, and avoiding where we wanted to go.  After a couple times of breaking gait, we finally settled into a trot, where our circles became a bit more rounder.  Then, finally I got the circles without any corrections, just using focus.

But I had to bend him to a stop to keep us going to the gait.  There I discovered that he really was being very bracy.  Lateral flexion was tough, with him leaning hard against the rope.  When he gave in to the pressure, though, and I released, he licked and chewed.  It took at least twelve times, alternating sides, with much licking and chewing, before he finally got soft.  I moved on to the 9-step back up and discovered a similiar problem to fix.  Then discovered the same thing with sideways.  After I isolated those three issues and Cal was much softer, we went back onto the circle with much more success.

Then I saw the barrels. Two sets of two barrels lined perfectly up for jumping.  I now know his unwillingness to jump in unconfidence more than anything else.  So I was patient, played approach and retreat, and made it my goal that he just think about it, nothing more.  It took a while, but what do you know, with that method of going at it, we were soon springing over the barrels, turning, facing, waiting, and licking and chewing.  We were able to then go over both sets of barrels in a row, then turn, face, and wait.  Neat!  For whatever reason, made I pushed him too much, he lost confidence and avoided a jump after I had done it half a dozen times.

I decided to get off.  Then I was going to let Cal go, but Joan came to the arena to play with Thunder, so I went along.  My plan was to do undemanding time and sit and watch Joan, but I fell for a trap.  I saw those barrels and I wondered, "What about jumping them upright?"  To my utter surprise, the first time I asked, Cal did it!  He hit one with his back legs and knocked it over, but I was astonished.  First mistake: being too impatient and not waiting for licking and chewing.  I lowered the barrel and had Cal jump it lying down again.  This time when I raised it up, it took quite a bit of convincing to get him to go over it.  When he did (knocking it over again), I repeated my first mistake.  Foolishly, I asked for it again.  It should have been no surprise that it didn't happen.  Cal was being slow and sluggish.  Dull and unresponsive.  Of course he was.  He was unconfident, and instead of acknowledging his fear I was treating him as if he was a LBI who just didn't want to do it.  Blech.  My savvy regressed back to two years ago when I last tried this task.  Awful.

With that revelation, I took Cal back to the pasture.  He didn't take off, but instead of confidently walking through the gates to the other horses, he had to dart through.  Clearly I didn't build up his confidence in himself today.  Sorry...