August 8, 2011 - Blackjack!

Just skimming past the X end of the cavaletti

 Rory was good on the longeline as usual today.  I set up three trot poles, using a cavaletti on the lowest height as the middle pole.  I also put out a canter rail.

We walked over the trot poles so Rory could have a look at them and realize that the middle one was a little higher than the end ones.    I haven't quite got the hang of getting a good halt from Rory yet.  He tends to swing his hindquarters to one side or the other as he stops.  I tried to correct the swing today and it just made the halt into a bigger mess.

 The first time I aimed Rory at the trot poles he trotted up to them nicely, straight and forward and then swerved left at the last moment.  I wasn't able to keep him straight and I hoped he wouldn't bang his legs on the X end of the cavaletti.  He did have boots on, but I really didn't want him to run into anything.  Rory came back to a walk after his narrow miss and I explained to him that I'd really rather he didn't swerve away from the poles.  We returned to trot and went over the single pole before trying the trot poles again.  This time he managed to go over them, if not quite in a straight line.  Even when he was a little crooked Rory was willing to stretch his stride a little so he could maintain the rhythm of his trot.

Rory cantered on the left lead first today.  We went round the ring and over the pole before changing the rein.  It took a couple of tries to get the right lead, but after he got it we managed to canter all the way around the ring.  About halfway round he did almost break to trot, but responded to my leg when I asked him to keep going.  Progress!

At the end of the ride I walked him over the trot poles, and then around and between them in a rough figure eight.  The circles were a bit uneven in size and shape, but he was listening to me.  Totyo had come down to the fence a couple of times and Rory had ignored him for the most part.  He watched Totyo when we were close, but never tuned me out.

Today was the twenty first day that I've been on Rory's back.  I'm quite happy with his progress given that he's been ridden for less than four hours altogether.