May 22, 2011 - High energy

There was a lot of activity around the barn today.  Rory was a little up with the distraction, but was listening to me.  I asked for canter on the longeline again today.  Rory had a little trouble understanding what I wanted, but he did go to canter more easily each time. On the right rein we had a little too much energy in one transition and Rory leaped into canter, kicked out and bolted, pulling the longeline out of my hand.  He ran out the big door of the arena and went round to the back of his paddock and stopped.  When I got out there he was trying to figure out how to reach the grass while wearing side reins.  Back in the arena he tried to repeat the bolt out the door every time he turned back towards it on the circle.  He settled in about two minutes, and cantered calmly within five minutes.  I was really happy that he settled back into work so easily.

Cantering brought up Rory's energy

I rode for almost fifteen minutes.  When we first started walking around Rory was still on edge a little bit and I didn't think we'd be trotting today.  I did the point to point exercise - choosing a point, riding straight to it, then choosing another point.  Rory wobbled on the lines to start and then steadied for the second half of each line.  When we went past the big door he would drift towards it, but did turn away or go past as I kept asking for the turn and forward.  As we went along he paid more attention to me, and I decided to try a trot hoping the extra energy would make it easier for him.  He remembered the lesson from last week and went to trot with just my leg and voice aids.  We did a couple of short trots and then a couple of longer ones.  Again the camera missed the best trot - this time due to running out of memory.