Toys are back in the pram :-)

Well it's been an interesting week.

You'll recollect that two weeks ago we decided that Ace needed to learn to listen more actively to what I wanted him to do. In order to achieve that I started doing many more transitions between and within paces, at set markers. I knew that was likely to spark some arguments, but I felt that it was now time to stick to my guns and see those arguments through to the end. He is physically strong now, and I need submission before we can safely progress to more difficult work.

The result was that Ace picked on a set of blue plastic barrels that have been on the side of the arena since shortly after it was built, and threw a tantrum every time he was asked to go near them. He reared, bucked, bolted and plunged in an effort to avoid them. Desensitising him to them nicely did not work. It produced a result in one direction and one pace only to return on a change of rein or a change of  pace. It produced a result one day only to return the next with a vengeance.

I began instead to punish him for disobedience. I flicked him with the whip without releasing my hand from the reins. I used the spurs, at times, quite strongly. He fought me and was quite honestly trying to get me off. I put him overbent, and won. The rearing stopped, the bucking stopped and he was realtively controllable for a couple of days. Then he learnt how to escape the overbending and although he didn't go back to bucking or full rearing he was a nightmare to steer anywhere near the barrels and did some absolutely filthy spooks.

A week ago I put him in draw reins. I only used them if he was naughty, so he had one chance, or two, to behave and then I took them up. They were a miracle, really. He simply could not escape them and he stopped pulling madly at my hands and became much more steerable. Instead of spinning away from the barrels he went past, often bouncing on the spot. In canter he was doing multiple changes, which holds great promise for his future ability to do tempis :-) !!!

Two days ago, suddenly, in the middle of being quite silly, I felt a complete change in him and he did the rest of our session really nicely.

Yesterday, he was back to arguing again and I was quite despondent. I had a conversation with SH and we agreed that we would do three more days in draw reins in the hope of a breakthrough, and if that did not achieve anything we would remove the draw reins and the barrels and start from scratch with another tactic.

Today I was thrilled. I never actually picked up the draw reins, I left them clipped to the saddle in a position where they were never engaged. He was silly a few times, but not uncontrollable. He did what I asked on the third request, having improved on the second repetition. He finished cool and relaxed having done some really good transitions.

I'm so sure that we have now made a breakthrough that I feel confident enough to report it. Now that he has submitted mentally to my instruction he is on the brink of massive improvements in his physical ability.  I can feel it and it is already showing in his trot to canter particularly. He doesn't shrink away from my leg when I get on any more, and he doesn't kick out in our first trot and he has stopped napping to the exit too.

I'm very excited about what we may achieve now, particularly as he mistook a canter-trot-canter change of leg and did a flying change instead. I tried it again deliberately instead of by accident, and he did it a second time too.  He clearly has a natural talent for them. Conventional wisdom is that he should be taught canter-walk-canter change of leg first, but I may try some more before that if he seems happy.

So, not only am I thoroughly looking forward to getting on Ace tomorrow, but we are another day nearer the opening meet!

C