LoneStar Central <Training>

Read my latest entry from Sunday, October 10, 2004:

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	I should note that I worked with a Belgian this last weekend and little Star just doesn't seem like much after that. I think that is my recommendation for anyone that needs a confidence boost with their own horse, go work with a draft horse for a day. LOL Of course that may not be a good idea for everyone. Regardless in my mind I couldn't think of anything Star could do that I couldn't handle calmly. It must have helped because I had the best ride yet this afternoon on Star. I went into it a little hesitant because when I was walking across the pasture he started kicking out with his hind legs. It was so strange because he wasn't spooked or kicking towards anything specifically, he just acted like something was biting him on the rear. I walked him out a bit before loading him into the trailer and when we got to the arena I turned him loose in case he wanted to do more kicking. He didn't kick or buck once. He paid attention to my cues and smoothly cantered and trotted a few times around the arena before I cued him to come in. After getting on, he felt good at the walk and trot. I went through the mental checklist that I created for myself and felt him go on to the bit more frequently and for longer then I have ever had him go. It just felt amazing, because he is much more sensitive to my cues when he is traveling this way. We also worked some on halting from the walk; I'd close my fingers on the reins and tell him to whoa and if he didn't respond tightened the reins until he did. He improved a good amount, we still need work but I didn't want to push it on him too much in one session. In the mean time Nancy and Nicole had set up some cones and ground poles at the other end of the arena. We just rode around them the first time, both directions, and Star didn't seem to even notice they were there. Nancy and Nicole had been doing serpentines through a row of cones and encouraged me to try. I laughed, but figured why not. We did it at the walk, no problem. So next was trotting, it proved a little more challenging (more so for me). I wanted to use my reins more then my seat and legs, of course I could tell Star was confused by this and he kept swinging wide. Nancy told me to walk through one more time and then trot. The next time I trotted I collected him more before going down the line and concentrated on my seat and legs, we made it! We made it each time after that. I think Star enjoyed it as much as me. :) We did some more trot work and then cantered. Again the mental checklist, this time I found that I was putting more pressure in to my right stirrup. I pushed down my heels and it seemed to correct itself. The first canter was a little rushed and on the wrong lead, but it improved from there. The rest of our departs were on the right lead and we both seemed more comfortable with each transition. I cantered a few times each direction at one end of the arena and then a few times each direction at the other end. Keep in mind in all the years we have been cantering we have only gone once or twice down the longside of the arena and that was at least 3 years ago. The last time I asked for him to canter I considered doing circles down the long side of the arena but he felt so calm that I decided to just take him on down straight. He didn't flinch, in times past he has tried to continue on with the circle going in one half of the arena, and we continued on around before I brought him down to the trot. I know we haven't solved all our problems, I don't ever expect to reach that point, but it was definitely nice to have such a wonderful ride!

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