The Natural Horse

Today we did just what I said we should move on to when I posted yesterday--we did more transitions to encourage the canter.

On the way down to the arena where the halter and line were, I could tell that whatever keeps Blu stuck to me was kind of weak, so I stopped every 5 to 10 steps and gave him a cookie. By the time we got to the gate, he was connected really well and ready to go. I asked him to do a spin and then we put on his halter.

I asked for a little sideways using just my energy and hip. He could go away and come back without the stick and he stayed sideways. We got to about 6 feet.

Today, I found it really easy to know what it meant to be effective. When Blu was slow to leave the barrel, I spanked the spot after he had begun to slowly leave and the next time he went right off and didn't flick his tail.

The game tonight was as long as you are not cantering, you are going to be making lots of walk, trot, stop, and back up transitions and I will be micro managing those transitions all the way around the circle with no neutral. When I asked him to canter, I would immediately go to neutral. If he broke gait, which he only did twice, I went back to micromanaging. It worked superbly! He completed two laps in both directions.

Tomorrow, I would like to start thinking about asking for a change of direction at the canter applying the same principle of lots of transitions if he doesn't maintain the gait through the change.

I was so happy with where we left off. We did some liberty--two spins in a row and a clean cantering stick to me. Unfortunately, the clean canter was followed by a not clean one when Blu left. However, on the up side, we got it back together and when we went back through the gate, he waited for me to shut it and he cantered with me to the top of the corral.

It feels good to have something work like this.

Natural Horsewoman Out.