Week Eleven

Several rides squeezed into our schedules this week and there has been some more nice progress.
The lateral steps are continuing to really help Fudge 'find his feet' literally and figuratively.  It's so lovely to get a big, confident response to a light leg aid and I've been having fun tuning the aids into 'move your whole body over' and 'only move your hind legs over' and he is really nailing it.

I am desperate to get some footage of him under saddle, both for illustrating this blog and so I can check things like the angles of his head and neck and how the paces look compared with how they feel, whether he is properly tracking up and swinging and my own position!  Might be time for a lesson or two soon! (when we're both a little fitter, maybe...)

Yesterday was an interesting ride and we worked through two little 'moments' and continued to delve into what makes this pony tick.

The first 'oops' happened early in the ride when I rather thoughtlessly asked for a canter very early in the ride.  I think I was justifying it to myself because I wanted to try getting up off his back and seeing if having a big bowl along loosened him up more quickly.  So instead of the walking, stretching, lateral work, trotting, stretching, lateral work sequence he's been getting used to, I just put my leg around and asked for a canter after only about half a circle of trot.  I also asked on the harder lead, and in the deepest sandy corner of the arena.  So it wasn't really surprising that he gave a plunge and a flick of the hind legs.  (I think.  Nobody saw it and I'm just judging by what it felt like!)  I went way way up out of the saddle but luckily crash landed back into it, only losing one stirrup and halting rather raggedly a few steps later.  Looks like my 'no bucking!' reflexes are still there.  After having one particularly bucky horse many years ago, I learned to sit on, drag him to a halt and then reapply the aid immediately.

Well, popping straight back into canter was not what he was expecting to be asked to do but he did it, a bit fast and snorty but perfectly obedient so we came back to trot and carried on with the schooling session.

Then later in the ride I decided to try asking for multiple steps of rein back.  I've done the odd step here and there and while negotiating gates etc, and he's always complied fairly amenably so I was pretty surprised when after initially offering 4-5 shuffly steps back, he just stopped and shut down completely.  Wouldn't move, mouth gaping wide, neck twisted and a very mulish expression on his face!

Thinking it through, having played with it a few more times since, I think he's really scared to go back.  Specifically, he's scared of his rider's aids, particularly the hand.  I surmise that he's been forced back at some point and either had his mouth badly hurt or even panicked and gone up or over.  So I have backed (ha!) the pressure right off and am asking for and getting, reasonably consistently, the odd single step back which I praise lavishly.  I am also going to consolidate this behaviour on the ground and use the clicker to get him really confident.  Tomorrow's game!