Trotting!

Our trainer didn't show up today. No email or phone call, so I'm not really sure what happened with that. I had Rusty all warmed up and ready on time for his lesson, after waiting a half hour I decided we might as well do some light work while waiting.

Things did not start off well. He refused to walk. Great. Now we can't walk or trot. I had the whip with me, but refrained from using it and just urged with my seat, legs and voice. It usually took more than a few squeezes before he'd inch forward, but as soon as he did I released all pressures and praised him. We did this for about 20 minutes. A couple of times he began the head up, back up might start bucking routine, but instead of popping him with the whip I just gave him a negative verbal feedback and he'd scoot forward. We started to get some good walk transitions and then out of nowhere he's nice and relaxed, accepting contact, swinging forward and he voluntarily picked up a trot!!! It was fantastic!

At this point I don't really care if I didn't ask for it at that moment, I'm just thrilled that he's offering it. He willingly came back to a walk for a couple of strides and then picked up the trot again. And it was a beautiful trot, he was forward, his neck was relaxed, he was seeking contact and most importantly it was quiet and kind. We did a number of transitions and then took a break for 10 minutes or so. I was hoping the trainer was going to show up, but soon decided to give that up. I was nervous about moving back onto the circle after the break, that he might not be willing to move. He was not excited to move into a walk and we had to have a discussion about that, but after that he was right back where he had been before the break. Willing to trot both directions and relaxed.

I couldn't have asked for a better ride today! In retrospect I'm glad the trainer no showed, it allowed us to take it slow and not push him to a point where he became frustrated. I'm not sure what this breakthrough means. I have a couple of theories... 1. He hates the dressage whip and it should rarely be used. 2. The couple of rides with the back up of a person on the ground allowed him to make positive associations with trotting. 3. His myofacial release has him feeling a little more free through the body. 4. A combination of all of the above! I think this is the more likely answer. It wasn't just one event, but a variety of events that allowed us to make this little breakthrough.

I'm getting my horse a massage?

Rusty is getting his first massage tonight. Actually, equine myofacial release would be the proper terminology. I'm hoping for some answers to his resistance in moving forward. I worked him on Sunday and was able to identify that he seems to come up short in his left hind leg when transitioning down from the canter to the trot. He remains off for about a quarter to half circle and then appears normal again.

I jumped on him bareback briefly on Sunday to try my voice only, no whip commands to see if he might relax into some nice transitions. No luck, he was absolutely against it. He was threatning to rear and buck and actually completly stopping movement. I had one of my barn friends come into the round pen and pick up the lunge whip, at which point we had beautiful transitions. As soon as he left the round pen Rusty immediatly began his routine of refusing to move. So I asked my new assistant to come back in and pick up the whip again. Again transitions were back to perfect. We worked like this for a couple of transitions, than my assistant dropped the lunge whip and remained in the round pen, transitions remained nice and slowly the assistant left the round pen and we were able to continue with a few more nice transitions walk-trot-walk. So I called it quits. I suppose that's forward progress and I'm aiming to do a couple more of those works this week where there is support given by lunge whip at times to reinforce.

We'll also evaluate his body tonight just to see if there is a pain cause for all of this behavior. I suppose both of these give me a glimmer of hope for now...