Twosox: Being creative while still being particular!

Oct 16 2010

Twosox and I played in the riding ring this afternoon and it was very good. My goal was to be creative, very creative, while still being particular. 

So with that in mind we set off. We did Figure eights to start off with. At first Twosox maintained gait, which was good but he was loosing connection around the ends. So we continued with the pattern until he started putting more effort into coming around the ends and maintaining connection, while staying relaxed and maintaining gait. It was looking really nice and smooth when we stopped.

After that was the Weave. Which was interesting because we have had some issues with that recently with Twosox doing the Weave really well but missing the last tire. So today I felt prepared to try and solve the issue. I am still not really sure exactly what the issue is but I think that the main factor is that he gets a head of me a little bit at that point and so he misses that tire. I think. Still not 100% sure about it but it is the only thing that makes sense. 

Then we did some jumping a single barrel on the circle. Twosox was doing everything he could to avoid it. He gets worried when he comes up to the jump and I think it is because he thinks there will be pressure there. So we played with it and I tried a couple different strategies and finally found one that made a big difference. I had a small gap between the barrel and the fence so that Twosox could go through there if he wanted too, jump the barrel, or he could go between me and the barrel, which wasn't what I wanted.

What I did was after Twosox was gaining more confidence and he was trotting between the barrel and the fence I did a sort of traveling circle to and from the barrel. Every time Twosox jumped the barrel or went between it and the fence I would go away from it and then let Twosox circle a couple times and then walk back towards the barrel until it was in Twosox's path. He gained confidence really quickly and pretty soon every time Twosox came up to it he calmly jumped it and continued on his way. After he did that a couple times I brought him in and we finished there. 

So I think that over all it was one of our best play times that we have had in the riding ring in a long time. Twosox was asking lots of questions and I felt like I was a leader, being mentally and emotionally fit.

Naturally,

~Keri