Bad Rides: Knowing When to Quit for the Day
I am so frustrated today. I think I rode for too long and got in too big of a hurry. I may be trying to ask him to do too many different exercises in one day. I may also, because of good days, sometimes think he’s farther along than he is and then expect more out of him than I should.
Today we couldn’t go straight. Same thing with him, his shoulders head for the barn. I try to correct him, he responds slowly, I release when he responds, his shoulders go right back to heading for the barn. Eventually, his left side gets duller, and he stops responding. So I have him do a reverse arc and then go back to a straight line, which seems to work….for about 5 minutes, then his shoulders head for the barn. Then I start really banging on his left side with my boot top, bang bang bang, and nothing, no response. I reverse arc him again and he’s great at yielding (maybe because of the neck bend?). I try to get him to go straight and all of a sudden his left side goes dead. I don’t get it. I don’t know if he’s being ornery, or if he just doesn’t understand that I want him to move away from my leg. If he gets the concept on the right, why not on the left? Continue Reading »
