In our last lesson a couple weeks ago Mort was so behind my leg that my instructor basically told me that we should go back and start from scratch. He was out of shape and weak behind so he couldn't carry himself properly. I had been letting him be lazy the last few months because I thought it was better than an explosive alternative, so he also developed a bit of an issue about being forward. I'm glad that she has seen us on our good days because I would have been even more embarrassed if the Mort she saw was the only example she had of us.
She also worked with him in-hand a bit to see what our trailering issues were. He basically didn't respect her space or trust her as someone who could help him. He's also just plain scared of the trailer. So we got a lot of homework there as well.
The next two rides after that lesson were forward boot camp. If he even thought about getting behind my leg, I'd follow up with a tap from the whip. It didn't take long before Mort remembered how to move forward with me quietly asking. I think I smacked him twice in ride one and just had to wave the whip once in ride two.
The next couple rides addressed him ignoring the sideways portion of my leg. I put on a pair of spurs for back-up. In between the focusing on forward, I'd occasionally ask for a step sideways. I'd start by asking with my calf followed by the spur if he didn't listen. This one is harder for him mentally and physically, so it's going to be a slower process than re-installing forward. I'm just trying to be very specific when I ask so that there is no confusion. I double check how I'm sitting and where I'm placing my legs. I make sure that I'm not holding with my hands, and I just ask for a simple step off my leg.
The first ride just involved me asking him to move a few times each direction--two of those times were at the halt to really keep things simple in his head. The second ride involved checking to make sure he remembered moving a single step sideways then evolved into a few short leg yields each direction at the walk. He was doing well, so I asked for a single step sideways at the trot a time or two as well.
After the first ride after my lesson I started to quietly ask for suppleness again as well. At first I started with just one rein and it would evolve into both reins as he responded positively. I'm trying to be really consistent with keeping my hands on either side of his withers. I don't want to allow myself to do too much of an opening rein and I definitely don't want to allow myself to get sucked into the indirect rein trap. He has been giving me really nice moments of suppleness and connection, especially tracking right.
Our last ride was with the whole group at the barn. As I've discussed before, Mort is easily distracted when his friends are out there. So it was a more simple ride. He was still very forward but we didn't have much else. So, instead of worrying that everyone else was watching, I just worked with what I had. I asked for forward and I'd ask for suppleness. He didn't want to give it to me as he had been in our solo rides. That's OK. We did several short, loose rein walk breaks. I finally got some decent suppleness doing some figure eights at the trot. I stopped. I asked for a single step sideways at the walk and we just walked around on the loose rein until he was cooled off.
I'm glad that I didn't get sucked into trying to pull him back down into reality. I'm glad that I was ok with dropping the sideways back down because that's really hard for me mentally. I used the figure eights and turning to work on him wanting to counter-bend and go toward his friends. He kept his forward and we ended well.
I read a quote from Denny Emerson this past week that really resonated with me. It basically broke down that in training, you don't feel a lot of success in any particular ride. You find a good place to stop long before it becomes drilling. But eventually, all of these non-eventful rides will add up to success--months and years down the road. You don't feel it day-to-day but you see it looking back at where you've come from. I'm hoping to keep this in mind if I start to want to drill and get greedy asking for "one more time".
So this is where Mort and I are in our riding right now. It'll come back quickly since it's all in there and I can still feel it sometimes. I'm sure I could be asking for more now that I've got the forward back, but I don't want to get stuck in the same trap as we got stuck in this winter. His fitness has to be established first so that it's fair to ask him for more.
Our in-hand homework is as follows:
He needs to move off pressure
If I put a finger to his neck I want his whole body to step sideways
If I put a finger behind his girth area I want his hind end to move sideways
He needs to not get into my space
He gets backed up if he crowds me
He needs to focus on me as a "leader"
We're working on standing in the aisle for grooming and tacking without being tied
He has to focus on me all the time and gets moved back into place if he steps forward
He needs to walk forward toward me when asked
I stand in front of him at the end of the lead rope and ask him to step forward toward me
If he steps forward before I ask, he gets backed up a step
I'm being very specific about how I handle him. We spend at least 10-15 minutes every time I'm out there working on our homework by the trailer. Saturday we hooked it up and I practiced asking him to move his body toward it. We worked on getting him to step toward me while I was standing on it. He put his front feet on several times and I would ask for a step backward, then a step forward. That was fairly successful. He does get treats occasionally while we work on the ground--particularly for stepping to me when asked.
He definitely understands what I want on the ground now. He's very good at the different tasks. I don't know that he sees me as a "leader" but he's at least thinking about me a little more. I'm hoping to continue to do the forward and back commands on the trailer a lot over the next few weeks before our clinic. Hopefully him focusing on the exercise will help us get on the trailer.
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