Horse Training: Thoughts on Progress and Loving the Journey
I had the best ride tonight. I just realized that Leo, the horse with anger management issues, no longer has anger management issues. It’s hard to believe that he’s the same horse. I’m not say he’s a trained reining horse. I know that we have a long way to go. In fact, we’re still pretty early in the Les Vogt program because I’ve been taking it really slow wanting to get each thing right before moving on. But the exercises that we’ve been doing (the circles, the flexion, more circles, testing the very beginnings of turn arounds, more circles) seem to have made something click in Leo’s head. He no longer refuses to go forward, or tosses his head up and down impatiently, or pins his ears back to warn me that he might just start bucking. He seems very very serious about his lessons now and completely engaged in what we’re doing (except for sometimes when we get to that one spot in the arena that leads home).
Honestly, I used to be very careful about asking him to too much for too long. His bad behavior would increase, and I knew he was very good at getting rid of riders. I just have no fear of him at all now. He’s pretty sure that I’m not going to hurt him and now I’m pretty sure he’s done thinkin’ he might have to hurt me. Tonight we worked for an hour and a half. He gave it his best effort and was so relaxed and (dare I say it?) sweet.
Areas we’ve improved: The circles in a canter. This time I focused on myself. I kept my eyes forward and focused on my balance and how I was sitting. Was I leaning on my legs at all? Was I catching myself leaning to the inside to double check that lead? I don’t know how that worked, but it seemed to work. He wasn’t dropping his shoulder and was going pretty steady. This was such a big difference. I even got a few compliments from some other riders who’ve noticed our improvement. Also, I think I’m finally getting the hang of those long reins.
This all has me feeling like I’m on the right track. I’m certain that if a professional trainer had Leo for the same amount of time, he’d be a lot further along. But the idea that he is improving because of my efforts has me feeling pretty hopeful and optimistic. We may not get there fast, but we’re going to get there.
