Prince is making good progress in his education under saddle. In addition to a lot of bending and lateral work, I have added a simple exercise that focuses on transitions. Walk to halt has gotten quiet good, though he is rather impatient if asked to stand more than a few seconds. He has started to learn to lift his back and step under from behind at the walk and in transitions up to and down from the trot. He's getting pretty willing to balance into feather-light contact at the walk and through the transition up, which gives us a few nice, smooth trot steps before it's time to ask him to lift his back again and softly transition down. His tendency, as is common with many green horses, is to want to fall on the forehand in the downward transition, so I have to be very diligent to set it up well and ride through the transition into a good, balanced walk, asking him to lift his back again as soon as he is walking. As riders, we sometimes have the tendency to ride into the downward transition, but not through it, placing the emphasis on the quality of the upward transition and the trot, and then letting the horse fall apart for a bit after that is accomplished. As I remind my students, in this exercise where the focus is on doing several transitions on each circle instead of  holding a gait, each gait change is simply the set-up for the next transition, so each gait change needs to be executed with equal attention and intention.

Prince and I did have some difficulties this week, though. He's always ready and eager to come out of his stall to go to work, but this week he showed some reluctance after we were in the arena. We graduated from riding in a small ring to the large jumping ring without him losing too much focus, but I did have a bit of trouble a couple of times getting him to pass the gate. He wanted to turn right and go out and I wanted to turn left and continue around the corner down the long side of the arena. His evasive maneuvers included dropping his right shoulder and barging away, backing up, and tossing his head while stomping his front feet a bit. I opted not to get after him, but instead to stay quiet and calmly keep asking for what I wanted, not picking a fight with him, but also not giving in. I outlasted him, then we did a little groundwork at the gate for good measure.

Later in the week I was free-longing him in the same exercise we've been doing mounted - transitions. After a little suppling warm-up of groundwork, I asked him to go to the rail and do walk-halt and walk-trot transitions, two to four transitions on every appx. 30-meter circle. He complied for a while, then began refusing to listen to the downward transition commands, prefering to trot and even canter instead of walking. I hadn't intended much, if any canter work, because it was a hot day and I didn't want him to overheat. I had in mind a short and easy workout for us both, but Prince had different ideas. After he started to misbehave, I used two techniques to refocus him. First, I caught him several times and put him on a long leadline where I could give a good, sound half-halt when he ignored my walk command from the trot. He'd go back to the rail and comply for a few transitions, then once again start trotting and cantering around when asked to walk. I then used the hot day against him a bit. Whenever I asked for walk and he kept trotting or cantered, I would get in front of him and turn him back into the fence and then quickly turn him into the fence a second time to return to the direction he had been traveling. After a few of these maneuvers - which, incidentally he executes with perfect balance - he decided walking would be a better choice. We both got hotter than I had intended, but I expect the next time I ask for his attention in the roundpen, I'll get it. In part that's because I didn't get upset with Prince and punish him for his disobedience. I didn't chase him round and round until he submitted as some training techniques would suggest. I put him in a position where I could more clearly "explain" what I was asking him to do - on the short line - and I stepped up the balance "question" by adding the direction changes. And after both those corrections, I gave him the chance to make the right choice, to show that he had learned what I was asking him to learn, without fear or drama.

Week 11 - September 2007

After some consideration about last week's issues with Prince, I decided we either had hit a work ethic issue or he was letting me know he needs some time to assimilate all he has been learning the past month. So, this week's work sessions have been shorter, though he'll work one more day this week than he has in past. He also got more turnout time to play with his buddy Sport. And we have gone back and reviewed work on the ground and longe that he is familiar to him. I'm still asking him to hold the bend and lift his back for more steps in a row in hand, so that reflects the progress he has made. We worked on the longe line for the first time in weeks, with my emphasis on maintianing a consistent contact on the line as I follow the side-to-side swing of the walk and trot. I can emphasize the stretch back or the give motion to encourage him to move slightly laterally in or out on the circle, subtly helping him to fine-tune his straightness to improve balance.

We also revisited free longe work over two poles, and Prince made a bit of a breakthrough. When we did this exercise a couple weeks ago, I had to space the poles wide enough for three trot strides and one canter stride between the poles. When they were placed shorter, asking him to canter in over one pole and out over the other without a stride in between, he kept flinging himself on the forehand trying to clear both at the same time. It wasn't a pretty sight. So we continued to practice very basic work over two poles, including walking and trotting both poles, walking in and trotting out, and trotting in and cantering out. More practice in that progression paid off this week when he managed the canter in/canter out test quite consistently after experimenting a few times to figure out just how much he had to reach to get through the obstacle.

Another thing I realized as I looked through the photos from the past three weeks or so is that Prince's tendency to hyperextend in front at the trot has all but disappeared. If you'll recall, instead of asking him to slow down or break down from the trot when he'd hyperextend, I instead simply pushed him up to a canter to give that misdirected energy a better expression. That's not the approach I'd take with all horses; with some I would ask for the downward transition to invite them to get off the forehand in this situation. But for Prince, executing that transition sometimes seemed to drive him further onto the forehand, jamming him even harder into those rigidly held knee and pastern joints. With his history of founder, I'm super aware of the importance of minimizing concussion in the forelimbs. Because he seemed more likely to correctly rebalance himself in the canter transition, I choose that option for him in the early days of our work together. Now, I notice he makes that choice on his own. If I notice the trot even starting to tend toward hyperextension, before I can react he generally chooses by himself to step up into a canter for a few strides. The trot into which he transitions back down is generally much more balanced. I just love it when horses learn to make those kinds of choices for themselves. Hyperextension, also refered to as "toe flipping," carries such a risk of structural injury, causing unnecessary concussion in joints from the foot up through the shoulder and stress on the corresponding soft tissue.

Week 12

Still building on the basics this week, with a combination of bodywork, groundwork, longe on and off the line and mounted work. We had one rather intense session on the longe line working over a pole and emphasizing holding bend for the entire circle, even those difficult areas just before and just after the pole. Right bend went pretty well, but left was a challenge. He wants to tip his nose out by jutting his cheek to the left, effectively locking up the entire throatlatch/poll area. Then he falls in on the left shoulder and leaves himself no room to push through with the left hind. I alternated hands-on work helping him release the throatlatch, neck and shoulder with allowing him to go out a bit on the line and asking for the release with an elastic connection from my elbow, stretching back to tip his nose toward me and then releasing slightly to help keep his spine swinging.

The best part of the week was the mounted work. We're still working on the trot transition and putting together the elements of bend and impulsion in the trot. I school this type of postural and movement task as an extension of the groundwork, in which I can place my hand on an area that needs to release or work a bit more and ask for that response. Of course, while mounted I can't reach all the spots I can from the ground and can't exert the same pressure from the same angle. But I have found over the years that the main release points get "programmed" to some extent. For example, after I have worked with a horse for some time, I may not need to exert any pressure at the throatlatch to get the horse to release there. I may only need to touch gently, or even move just move my hand near the horse's body in that area to trigger a release response.

So because I have done so much groundwork with Prince, I had an easy tool to put to use when he was reacting with stifffness to my request to bend at the neck and ribcage and lift his back to lighten the forehand while maintaining some inside rein contact. Mimicking an exercise I do from the ground,  I was able to place my hand on the crest of his neck and rock it back and forth a bit in rhythm with the walk. As you can see from the photos, he went from a hollow back and somewhat stiff neck that left him heavy on the right rein to a much softer neck and slightly lifted back that left him more ready to step under and maintain a lighter connection with my hand.

About 15 minutes of that yielded several nice, relaxed trot transitions and the best sustained trot work he has offered so far. He's consistently able to step up into the trot with just a seat aid, and is learning to respond to the same aid to help keep him from falling onto the forehand and out of the trot. The prep for this transition, both from the walk and within the trot, is simple - just ask him to lift his belly. Once I feel him lift and step under, I simply change the "following" motion of my seatbones, energizing them to set the rhythm of a nice forward trot.