Ruffian: Confidence at last!

February 15 2011

Ruffian and I had a great session this morning. It was amazing to see how confident Ruffian was but at the same time it was challenging for me to be able to keep it interesting enough for him while not putting to much pressure on him and sending him unconfident again. 

We started out with some Touch it and then circles on the 12ft line. Ruffian kept breaking gait. So I decided to handle it as a lack of confidence/ misunderstanding issue by resending him gently and then going back to neutral. That didn't really make a difference so I decided to see if it was a lack of interest/ boredom. So I picked up the pace and we did some changes of direction and falling leaf which really worked well. Ruffian started maintaining gait and he came alive. 

Since we had done the falling leaf pattern over to the other side of the riding ring we then did some circles there and I set it up so that a single barrel would be in the way. Ruffian jumped it confidently each time, which was about 3 times each direction. Then I brought him in and let him lick and chew over what we had just done. 

Ruffian was looking really rideable so we went over to the fence and played with mounting then we did some Follow the rail along with direct and indirect rein. Ruffian lateral flexions are amazing so we didn't have to spend long with those. We were able to do Follow the rail at the walk for about 3/4 of the way around the riding ring, which for Ruffian was really great!! 

The whole ride Ruffian was confident and the best part was that he didn't try laying down on me ;) That was a big bonus :)

Naturally,

~Keri