Relaxation

Recently Poptart is focusing on relaxation with tasks (more so than the task itself) as he struggles
with a lot of fear, especially with objects around his hind legs and underside. Today he had a great moment when he jumped the barrels, but was lazy and caught them with his hind legs. However he did not panic (so huge!!!!) he kept cantering then came back and relaxed next to the barrels. After playing with the barrels for a few minutes he jumped them again confidently. We are also getting more relaxation with saddling, it is taking a while but each step is completed with a lowered head/neck, loose lower lip and lots of licking/chewing. Eventually the goal is to saddle at a normal speed with relaxation (all in good time). We rode for a short session, again concentrating on relaxation--- seeing if he could stand after mounting until he relaxed with a lowered head, we were successful and we got a whole series of yawns (adrenaline releasing) prior to dismounting. Then since we were both tired we went to graze in the backyard and play with hobbling. Yesterday he was hobbled for 1 minute and took 1-2 steps while grazing. Today he was hobbled for several minutes and took a number of steps. He fell twice to his knees on the grass but never became panicked or fearful, just pushed himself back up and kept grazing. To be continued...