Hard Patterns
Here we are doing the same pattern Ava was rocking in the last video. We walked it a couple of times then proceeded to trot. It was much harder than it looked. All of this has me thinking though, I spent my life pursuing that headset. I told my husband last night that i had spent 40 years working on it, he said no, I’m not 40 quite yet and even if I was I didn’t start at birth. He likes to ruin my fun. We decided probably at least 20 years though. From the beginning with a really bad dressage instructor, to a really good one who I wasn’t good enough to fully appreciate or make use of, two great reining and cow horse trainers, years of starting colts and now, finally, playing around with clicker training and not working towards any type of showing and hardly even riding. It figures that now is when I finally truly, I hope, get it. All that time spent pulling on their heads trying to drag them into collection. I read that it comes from behind, I pondered it deeply and wondered how in the world. But I couldn’t figure it out. I think I’ve found it. Not that he is “collected” I don’t want or expect him to be at this point, but he is so soft and giving his head to the slightest pressure. I don’t want him on or, especially, behind the vertical. There are a couple more videos from this ride, I split them up to keep them short and sweet, in one of the others he keeps wanting to go behind the bit. I spend lots of time pushing him to go forward and keep moving to avoid that. I am trying to stay out of his mouth as much as possible while still offering guidance and support. And he is spending most of his time nicely rounded. I love it.
Sounds fun