Lately I've been having a lot of problems with Walker which, frankly, has been the story of our relationship thus far. However, some days, like the past week or two, it's almost like we take a step back in our training. We will go from being able to lope circles to not being able to lope at all. On those days, I am very attuned to our problems, and even though they change often - bucking, bolting, etc. - I can always tell what type of problem I'm going to encounter. They are rarely a surprise. I also read voraciously, and even though I don't necessarily have the skills to solve a lot of these problems, I feel more than equipped at pointing out a solution.
So lately our main problem has been bolting. When I ask him to lope, he takes advantage of the speed increase to take off on me and refuses to stop until he gets to where he wants to go - usually towards another horse, especially in the case of our lessons. For this reason, I hate riding with other horses because it tends to add a new dimension of problems to our already problematic rides. My instructor has been the witness of this in a few of the lessons and she is a big fan of the small circles method where you force a horse to make a circle every time they pick up the pace. While I believe in this method, it can sometimes be a problem for me because in order to make a circle, one must be able to turn their horse. :S Sometimes Walker ignores my leg (even though I wear a spur) and I am forced to wrench his head around on top of the spur. This can be effective when we fight at the trot, but I find that when he is racing down the arena at full speed canter, I am just not balanced enough to fight with him AND stay on.
I've also been doing a little reading online and another method I have encountered is the "make what the horse wants to do difficult for them" method which, as a general rule, I'm a big fan of. In other words, when Walker races off like that, force him to go faster, to keep going, until slowing down seems like his best option. This is all fine and dandy, and as I say, I do this all the time at the other gaits. If he tries to ignore me and do something I'm not asking, I force him to do it in a way that he dislikes and eventually he listens to me. However, once again, I'm not sure I have the requisite skills for this method. I can imagine Walker cantering off now and me forcing him to keep going at that speed. I have pretty much no balance and I simply don't believe that I could maintain my seat going at such a high speed (which is half the reason I want him to lope slow anyway). Maybe when I'm a better rider, this would be an option, but frankly the idea doesn't seem to be the best one.
In our past couple of rides, I have been having a lot of problems with him. The other day he bolted when I asked him to lope and went right for a little girl on her horse who luckily didn't spook when Walker went towards him, and also luckily Walker stopped when we got there. Then when the other horses left the arena and he was all alone with me, he threw a hissy fit, calling to them, and throwing his head in the air, dancing around on the spot. So it's an understatement to say that I'm frustrated. I had such big plans for this month and I can't even get him to have a ride where he's safe, let alone listening to me.
So last night I was pretty upset thinking about all this and I vowed that today would be the day. I was going to take the risk at the lope that he just might throw me, but if that's what it took to get him to listen to me, then that's what I was going to do. When I got to the barn, I was hoping there would be no one around because, like I said, I don't like having other people in the arena with me - it simply makes the problems bigger. But unfortunately, there were A LOT of people at the barn - already three riding and another one tacking up. When we hit the arena, there were five of us.
I jogged him on a loose rein for awhile and I was happy with his attention at the jog. I have way less problems with him at the walk/jog, but it was still nice that he was listening to me even when there were so many other horses to take his attention. Then, when three of the horses left and there were just two of us, I decided to get over it and just lope.
And he was wonderful. Speedy, sure, but I kept him going in a small-ish circle and he never once bolted out of it or even threw a buck. I was so happy that I actually forgot to lope him in the other direction! In fact, I think we loped more consecutive circles today than we ever have.
And just when I think we're both beyond professional help, he reminds me why I love him and why he's worth all the trouble. ♥
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