Mr. Richard's Awesome Ride

Rick had a lesson Thursday night, and it was fabulous.  His new saddle configuration really is great - it is giving him a lot more connection to the horse, and combined with all that Denise has done with his position and stirrup lengths, riding is a new experience.

He learned about the power of looking where you want to turn - as in to NOT look too soon or else the horse cuts the corner.  Keep looking ahead, keep looking ahead, keep looking ahead, look into the turn and turn.

He also worked some more on controlling the trot with his seat along and moved onto controlling the canter.  Gene's canter has always been intimidating, but with Denise it was a breeze.  He was thrilled and felt a new connection to Gene.  :)

Peanut and I worked on the goats a little more on Saturday.  If I am in the middle of clicker work with him, he doesn't give a damn about the goats.  In fact, as we went past the goats he showed such confidence and willingness to keep going down the trail however I wanted that I was quite impressed.  He turned back only once (instead of every other step) and came right out of it when I talked to him and didn't try it again.

He didn't even bat an eyelash when we got to the one spot where he freezes more than any other.  He just paid attention to me and only me.

Maybe I need to start working on clicker in the saddle, as a safety measure when it seems that things might start getting hairy.  If I can immediately snap his attention back to me and keep it, it may serve us well.  Of course, Peanut is a pretty damn solid trail horse, but there are some phobias of his (goats, walking by the fences of strange horses' pastures, etc) that would be nice to tackle, award, and hopefully extinguish.  :)