reinersblog.com

I ‘ve spend enough time trying to get these circles right that I’ve now identified our problem areas (or “challenges”):

Circles to the right: he loses his bend and gets straight.

At a walk: we’re pretty good there, but I notice that on the side of the arena that leads home, his outer shoulder (zone 2) breaks out of form and starts to head home. His neck stays plenty flexi though (ugh!). I use my outer leg and touch his neck with the outside rein to correct him. This works ok at a walk.

At a trot: he completely bursts out of the reins with his shoulder at the “spot that leads to home.” Since we’re going faster, he almost trots right out of the arena in shoulder first head still aimed toward the circle he’s supposed to be in, so I start really tapping him with that outside leg and pull on the outside rein. This causes him to straighten up because I’m forcing him to go back. With no bend I try to put him back and he cuts off part of the circle. It’s a mess. I think we’re making a pear, not a circle. Really really bad to the right.

At a canter: I try to keep him in a bend, but I notice he’s just pointing his nose in a lot of the time. He seems to get tired very quickly, so I have to keep urging him forward. But he’s not collecting. He’s sort of slamming down on his front end if that makes any sense. He’s getting better about the leaning, but is definitely not in a nice bend. I have to keep after him to keep him going in a circle, and he often tries to do his MadDog shoulder drop and cut hard to the inside.

Backing: he’s backing straight most of the time, but not with any real hustle. I’m not wearing spurs and wasn’t planning on it for awhile, not until I’m really “off” my legs while riding (Les says so). I’m not sure how to get him going any faster without. Maybe I shouldn’t be worried about faster right now though.

Yielding: he yields great with the slightest touch on my right, but from the left it requires some tapping with my left boot top to get him to respond.

Reins & Riding: I’m getting better with the reins and better about keeping weight off my legs. I see why it’s important to shorten the stirrups when riding that way. If you don’t use your legs much, your stirrups fall right off. I’ve also started to ride with my boots jammed into the stirrup all the way to the heel instead of riding on the balls of my feet like I was taught to way back when. It does make you feel more secure once you get used to it.

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.

I know Les says that you should let horses make mistakes because that’s how they learn, but what if they just keep making the same mistake? We’ve done so many circles, we might be permanently dizzy now. We’re great at a walk, good at a trot, but everything falls apart at a canter. Leo just wants to drop that inside shoulder and cut into that circle until we wind down to a stop.

I spend my time trying to correct Leo the only way I know how, which is to pull up on that inside rein, just so, so he has to straighten out. But it only lasts for a second. As soon as I release, he rushes right out from between those reins and heads for the center of the circle like we’re suddenly caught in an arena maelstrom. I think I need to really need to chant this Les Vogt quote a few times before I start every ride, “Remember that 90 percent of the time, a problem that a horse is giving you is just a reflection of your own riding, so work 90 percent on yourself and 10 percent on your horse.”

So really, this is all my doing. But what is it that I’m doing? Am I leaning to the inside? Am I tagging him with my outside leg and I don’t know it?

In Al Dunning’s book, “Reining,” he recommends arc drills for improving control of the horse’s body. He says you should have the horse walk around in small circles so it has a small arc in its neck. THEN, and here’s the tricky part, you’re supposed to back the horse in the tracks of that same circle. He says that when you can do this, “you have very good control of you own body as well as that of your horse.” Now I don’t know about you, but I think Al is something of an authority on the subject, so I’ve been working at it for about a month. This is what I’ve learned – I have no control of my body.

Getting this horse to bend while backing up is like trying to bend a plank. There I am, applying pressure with my legs, torquing my body around, and pullin’ on reins up high like some kind of crazy puppeteer. After a few seconds I end up with a very irritated horse who expresses this by tossing his head up and down. I’m fairly certain that he would like to know just exactly why I spent all that time teaching him to back straight only do what seeeeeems like, ask him to back crooked. It’s become an obsession of mine though. I feel like Daniel in the Karate Kid trying to catch a fly with chopsticks. The girls at the barn started giving me funny looks, and I was beginning to think it was impossible.

But recently, I saw the impossible! Out at that the ranch that we go to for Team Roping (Leo’s owner is a roper and lets us tag along) in the center of the arena was a cowboy backing his horse in a circle, a perfect circle. It was beautiful. I of course immediately introduced myself, and he gave me the name of a training video. It was the very video that taught him how to train his horse. He said it was the best purchase he’d ever made. I didn’t have a pen on me, so promptly forgot. Great. It was something Von…Van…Voughn…ugh. The quest continues….