Feeling Better

Guys, I'm definitely in a better place mentally today thinking about the show this weekend. Mort gave me a stellar ride yesterday. I wanted to touch on some transitions and get him soft and supple and responsive. After a few serpentines and circles he started to give me exactly what I was looking for. He was good for our transitions and came back to me quickly and stayed soft. I remembered to lift my hands and release instead of getting caught in a pulling fight with that left jaw and (magically) he was much softer. I didn't actually do as much as planned because I wanted to reward that awesome feeling of obedience. But we did trot/halt/trot. We did some leg yields. We did trot/canter and canter/trot. We stretched both directions. I did some conservative lengthens. I picked him up from the loose rein walk a handful of times. The end. We were both feeling good. I also worked on the dreaded trailer loading. The barn owner hooked up as I was clipping Mort's bridle path and fetlocks, so I figured we should go ahead and practice before we rode as well as after since he's been iffy lately. He was a touch hesitant when I first asked. He gave me a couple steps on the ramp then decided to back, so I backed him aggressively. Next time he walked up those couple steps and I let us have a moment of rest as reward. Then when I asked for another step he decided to get on all the way. He got a handful of grain. We backed off very slowly with a couple of treats for stopping when I asked. He was hesitant again, we backed. He walked on like a gentleman. I let him have another handful of grain and we backed off slowly again. After our ride and hose-off I grabbed his bucket of dinner grain. He followed me about halfway up, stopped, then came up the rest of the way. We chilled for a little while then backed off slowly with treats. I asked him to get on again and he walked right up with zero hesitation. More chilling and eating his dinner in the trailer. We repeated this a handful of times until he was completely done with his food. Good boy. I will have the same game plan on Thursday--loading before and feeding him his dinner on it after. It's amazing what a good ride and a good loading session can do for one's mental state. We also got our ride times this morning, so I've been able to embrace my Type-A personality and get to planning like a crazy person.