Recap Lesson 7

It worked out to be a month between lesson 6 and lesson 7 due to PHF and some nasty thunderstorms that made us cancel last week.  At lesson 6 we discussed adding another horse in the ring to see what Cruise would do and to start habituating him to traffic.  I did my usual lunge with side reins and a few minutes of groundwork with just us and then SW brought in a horse.  And Cruise promptly lost his s#$&.  It also didn’t help that the mare spooked at something as she came in the ring.  Anyway, after Cruise struck out(wtaf?) and I yelled at him, we got right to going through groundwork that moved his feet, interspersed with head lowering and short stints of standing still.  He came back to me pretty quickly and after 8-10 minutes I got on.

I did a cowboy circle 2-3 times to get his focus on me and then we were off.  He was pretty up and SW wanted me to make him go forward when he is up by doing lots of changes of direction at the walk.  So we did lots of small serpentines with halts and turn on the forehands mixed in.  

Then we moved on to trot using the same technique of forward with lots of changes of direction by doing half voltes to reverse interspersed with a few steps of sitting every now and then to get him off the forehand.  After about 3-4 minutes Cruise decided this was like work and became soft and responsive. We did a few 20m circles and called it good.

I was in general pleased with him, however, his reaction to having another horse in the ring really shows how much work we will have to do before even thinking about a show.  Also, SW was really on me about leaning forward when he is up and I’m not sure what he is going to do.  I’ve gotten better, but as soon as he gets squirrelly I revert a bit.  She wants me to ride the next couple of weeks just focusing on keeping my pubic bone and belt buckle up.  Like every single step.  Sigh.  On a good note, she was pleased with how I rode him forward, his square halts, and my green horse decision making.  So, we have a lesson scheduled in two weeks and if you need me I’ll be over here with my pubic bone and belt buckle tilted up.  That is all.