Incremental Relaxation and Obedience

Hit Air Vest and Ultimate Bitless Bridle
*and notice Poptart is standing on a mattress!!!!*

Poptart and I have been practicing in the past 2 weeks since our clinic.  I do feel we are making incremental progress.  We are now easily achieving consistent steps of shoulder-in at the walk on the circle and also easily performing neck-rein aka reverse bend volte circles at the walk as well.  At the trot we are having very nice steps of relaxed yielding reverse arc circles still intermixed with "No, I am going straight, not turning that direction at all". The nice steps are definitely out numbering the "no's". Shoulder-in on the circle is also more consistent at the trot as well, I can really feel the inside hind leg stepping under.  We are playing with serpentine's around all the obstacles in my arena maintaining the same bend regardless of left or right rein circle at both the walk and trot. We are, of course, practicing both left and right bend so both sides are exercised and stretched.  The serpentine's around the obstacles help keep the exercises fun and fresh and prevent repetitive drilling. We also are now cantering bareback on a loose rein in the arena. I practice my lateral disengagement (1-rein stop) from the canter to help instill a great emergency situation brake, which will hopefully never be necessary! His canter is more willing and is improving, but at times he still gets a little more up and down, rather than forward, but he does readily listen to his lateral disengagement-- nothing like real life practice!

We are spending a lot of time riding the trails right around my neighborhood and house.  I think that riding these 'home' trails is much harder than hauling out to the national forest.  There are lots of obstacles at home:

1. Leaving pasture mates
2. Rogan (pasture mates) screaming for him to return
3. Pasture mates galloping around field, screaming...
4. Normal subdivision activity including mowers, deer in bushes, dogs, bicycles, cars, etc
5. Trail without much room for lateral disengagement, such as when riding the pasture fence line.
6. Poptart is in a hurry to return home where he feels comfortable and safe

So, my main challenge is for Poptart to feel comfortable and safe with me, regardless of location or other horse activity.  At home is a good place to practice this challenge due to the above listed real-life situations.  We are making progress!!  The challenge is to walk calmly on a loose rein with the head and neck in a relaxed neutral posture, halt when asked, and to stand quietly on a loose rein when requested in all situations and trails.  Once this is easy we will start adding in trot and then, eventually, canter.

Today we had noticeable improvement.  About 25% of the time Poptart would halt and stand without needing to laterally disengage, another 25% he only needed about a 1/2 of a circle before he seemed to say, "oh this sucks I would rather stand and be told how wonderful I am" (huge progress!!).  The other 50% of the time required significantly less circles, shoulder yields, etc before he would stand quietly and he was much quicker to lower his head and blow-out, lick/chew, and relax.  He also was much more interested in taking steps to eat nearby grass rather than trying to hurry home every chance.

I have my new Hit-Air safety vest http://www.hitairequestrian.com/ which hopefully will never be necessary, but if it prevents 1 ER visit it will be well worth the cost.  And as Poptart can be quicker than a jackrabbit and I am riding bareaback... I thought it might be worthwhile insurance...

Poptart is modeling his new Ultimate Bitless Bridle http://www.ultimatebitlessbridle.com/ which I like so far. He is very responsive to the pressure, and the bridle does readily release pressure and does not pressure the poll, unlike other cross-under bridles on the market. It should be easy to use on endurance rides as he can eat/drink from it, it provides excellent communication (and hopefully control!), does not rub, and is machine washable!!