Sat Feb 5, 2005
55 degrees and sunny, who could resist annoying a horse on such a February day!! Now, I've been very sloppy about working with Quzqo this Winter/post-Holiday period, only riding him on the weekends, if that. But it seems he's not suffering for it, who knows, maybe he appreciates the break.
F'instance, week before last I was working on trying to get him to leg-yield, he would barely do it, which didn't bother me, because as far as I know, nobody's asked him! But last week, I asked him to leg-yield, and he oozed on across the arena like a champ!! (well, near-champ)...as good as Tezlu on a bad day! Both directions! Now either somebody's training him for me during the week (like those mystery sheath cleanings Tezlu enjoyed!), or he knew it already and I only jarred his memory, or he's learning things VERY quickly!
We have been working on our cantering, he knows the cues very well, it's gotten so I have to be careful because if I inadvertently shift my weight "just so" I can feel him bunching up to go into the canter! I've been trying to give him definite, exclusive signals to let him know the canter cue IS coming, so if I accidentally bump him with my outside leg he doesn't just tear off...so I collect him up, a gentle wiggle to the bit, shift the weight, outside leg and away he goes (I don't even have to lay the inside rein across his neck, he knows what the other stuff means!). Pretty dang good for a horse that had NO clue less than a year ago!
BUT, the Big News...today we cantered around the entire arena...TWICE!! (consecutively with no break!). THAT is the Quzqo Indoor Arena Cantering Record! I invested in a running martingale, I don't know if that helped or not, but he did very well and was a VERY nice balanced (but fast) canter....not the jarring horror that it used to be! He's getting there!
Week before last I got him into a canter and it was SO collected and balanced and SLOW, surprised the heck out of me!! Only lasted a few strides, but boy, it shows his potential! He can do it, providing it's 8:30 at night and he's very tired, LOL!
Also got him to back 4 steps today (not all at once, he had to "rest" between attempts..."soaking time" one trainer calls that)...with the martingale he couldn't fling his head up and fuss!
Kinda neat!
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