I was able to get him loping the way I was all last week on his good side and although he was still taking off a bit on his bad side and not making the turns when I wanted him too, I forced him to lope along the long end of the arena and sometimes I could get him to make a U-shape on his bad side. I watched the video that I took of my ride, and although it was zoomed out pretty far and it is difficult to tell, he is not going half as fast as I felt like he was going at the time. Once again, I just need to remind myself to sit the lope and go with it.
On Saturday, the judge kept telling me to have "soft hands", and so I decided to make this the subject of this post. When Walker bolted in warm-up, my barn owner suggested that we go back to the harsh bit we had at the beginning, which was the shank bit with a high port. I have decided to ignore her request (although I would not be against using it if I ever decided to show again). I am pretty good at the walk/jog, but I still do not have soft hands when we lope. While I'm sure that a high port would cure his bolting problem, I still firmly believe that it would simply create new problems. We've finally gotten to a point where I am able to lope him on his good side for several consecutive circles without even a buck or a fight, and we're slowly working our way there on his bad side. When I was using the harsher bit, he was weary to lope (probably because I was pulling on his mouth), and we would get into so many arguments that we could rarely get several consecutive circles out. I would much rather be able to lope and deal with my bolting horse, especially since I know the situations which brings out the bolting in him.
With regards to soft hands, I think that I was much better when I was loping today. I was not flailing around half as much as I was during our last good ride, and my only qualms with my hand positioning was that my hands were oftentimes too high. I wasn't necessarily pulling as much or flailing around; they were simply higher than they should be. In a way, I think this is a side effect of the loose reins I use to ride him at the walk/jog. When I go to lope, even though I think my reins are tighter, they are actually not as tight as I need them to be and I'm forced to put my hands higher or pull them back farther. Simultaneously, Walker doesn't like a tight rein so I don't want to tighten them up too much or we'll have a whole other problem. When he is loping like a maniac down the arena on his bad side, I can see where I have a much tighter pull on the reins and he is curling his head under. That was the only time today that he threw a buck. I have to remember to have soft hands, but also to have better hand positioning.
On another note, I think it is time to replace the insoles in my cowboy boots. At least I know I got my money's worth:
Finally, for your viewing pleasure, I have managed to cut the video down of last Wednesday's lesson to just the part where Walker bolts and bucks. Watching it on video, he doesn't seem to be going as fast as he felt like he was (as is usually the case), but at least you can see his nice little buck. I had to cut the sound, which is unfortunate because you can hear me yelling "WALKER!" while he goes flying down the side of the arena towards the other horses. Unfortunately, the video isn't very zoomed in, but I'm sure you can tell by his demeanour that he wasn't too happy to listen:
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