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Today was an adventure for Leo and I. Jim drove us to an arena for the first time. The weather has been so bad that it’s been impossible to ride outside—constant rain has turned the outdoor arena into one big mud puddle.

I had a few goals for the ride and some concern. Leo was a pretty nervous horse last summer at the team roping events. I was concerned that he would revert back to his old ways and express his frustration and nervousness in a unconstructive way. When we arrived, Jim and I took him inside with just a halter and lead rope. The big beautiful gloriously-dry arena was empty! Woo hoo! We did have an audience though, as soon as we slid open the door, a row of stabled horses popped their heads out of their stalls to see who the new kid was. Leo ignored them and snuck a bite of their hay on the way by (bad horse).

I walked him around the arena, and he seemed fine. He was checking things out, but wasn’t jumpy. So we saddled him up, and I went for a ride. I started him out slow, and once I realized he was fine, we started working on our Les Vogt moves: zones one, two, three, and four. We’re working hard on getting those down. Although I feel like we have a long way to go, I’m so proud of Leo. His behavior was wonderful. He was relaxed and listening. He seemed perfectly comfortable. I like that he was curious of his new surroundings, but still paying attention to me.

With the first goal accomplished—getting through the first arena ride successfully—we moved on to the second goal: taking off the shank bit and trying out a snaffle. I was going to use that medium mouthpiece Dee ring that I told you about the other day, but when I got home I realized it was the same darn bit that I already tried on him (for some reason it looked more severe in the store). I returned the duplicate and checked out a few others.

I was about to get what’s called a corkscrew bit because they say it’s less severe than a twist wire. But the woman at the counter said that it might cut him so to go grab some stuff off the shelf to coat it with. I never found out what the stuff was. I’m just not ready to put a bit in Leo’s mouth that could cut him. He trusts me…I’d feel horrible if I hurt him. I think that to be used correctly, bits like that belong in more experienced hands than mine.

What I settled on is a Dee ring snaffle with a “slow twist” mouthpiece. It’s a pretty neat bit. It’s a little more severe than a smooth mouthpiece, but not as severe as the corkscrew. Long story short, Jim and I made the switch, and Leo was great with it. He wasn’t trying to get away from it at all. It felt a lot different for me because of the direct contact. One thing I noticed though was that he was holding his head a lot lower. Um….YAY!

I think what I’ll do is use that slow-twist (isn’t that a martini?) mouthpiece for a while and then test out the regular mouthpiece again. I know Al said that was ok to do, and I’m pretty sure Les talked about going up and down the ladder when you need to as well.