Today I had a lovely 1 hour block to work with Marshall, so it was a curry and pick, and on goes the saddle and into the round pen. We saddled up and worked on walk, trot, canter transitions. He is ok moving from the walk to trot, but still googly eyed all around, its a fix to get him centered, then he tetters off again when his attention wanders, so it s fix again. We worked just in the halter, moving the hind, feeling the leg. I worked on keeping my grip and posting from the knees up. You know, and I know we all lose our stirups and I really rely on them, alot more then I should.
Then I bridled him up, and we worked on taking the bit softly, head down, without dicking around too much. He is ok, maybe a 5 on a scale of 1-10. I have those mohair reins and with the pending rain, they were stiff as heck. I think I am going to move to the parachute cord. It has a good feel, remains stiff, not slippery and feels does not feel like roping rope.
We were doing ok, until the a lady got out into the arena with her horses and started using the plastic bag to get them riled up. Marshall started snorting and hopping around. Now I could have stayed on him, but I took the better part of valor and got down and sent him on some circles. The moment I got off, he snorted and then started bucking like a fool...
ok, so I dodged a bullet...
After she was done flagging, I got back on, and while spirited, he was not bucking. Life is good. We worked on moving off the leg, with the neck rein support. He did a 6 on that. The stop was good, a 6 and the back up... was miserable... 3.. He is soft, very nice, but his feet are pretty sticky.
Got him back in, got everyone a little grass and off to work for another meeting.
Hi Ho!
LZ
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