Ruffian: Challenging yet fun!

December 22 2010

Ruffian and I had a fantastic playtime today! We started out with Figure eights but Ruffian was in an extremely playful mood so I decided to switch to some traveling circles to let him move his feet more. We did them at the canter in one direction and at the trot in the other then flowed right back into Figure eights.

Figure eights can be really challenging for us because I have to encourage Ruffian to be exuberant, matching his energy so that he will recognize me and listen. If I don't have it just right he will get worried and it will be to much pressure. If I put to much pressure on Ruffian will turn counterclockwise away from me and take off but if I do it right he will put a lot of effort into it and be confident and have fun. Today I got it right! Ruffian wasn't trotting around the barrels the whole way though so I had to find a way to ask him for more without putting to much pressure on. I was able to get it and Ruffian trotted 2 complete Figure eights with connection. It was great! It felt so wonderful afterward to get that and to know that Ruffian was confident at the end.

I learned the importance of waiting for Ruffian ask a question before I sent him out on a circle or ask him to do anything. That made a huge difference in our play session also. We were also able to do leading by the chin, which for Ruffian was a really hard task because he didn't like it at all. We even did some Figure eights at the walk, complete by leading by the chin.

Then we went over to the fence and I played with getting on and off Ruffian, making sure that he didn't go internal or get worried. He took it all really well and then we were able to get a couple steps forward a long the fence then I would bend him and get off. We did this as a pattern and Ruffian gained a lot of confidence and he got the pattern quickly. We were able to take more steps before I would get off and he was so relaxed by the end it was amazing!

Our lateral flexions were so light and Ruffian was really good! Hopefully over the winter I will be able to continue riding him bareback and getting him more and more confident with being ridden. I think in the past he was just pushed to far to fast and so the only way he knew how to get rid of the pressure was to lay down. So hopefully with more confidence he will stop doing that :)

We ended on a great note and Ruffian stuck with me at Liberty for a while before we headed over to the other side of the riding ring to leave.

Naturally,

~Keri