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1999 imported mare, approx 15hh, reining/cutting bred.Trained western,
loves hacking, good to load, catch, travel, in traffic etc.Sweet temperament and...
What horrible weather. I am sure that this little horse is part Hippo, he seems to spend more time in the mud than out of it. Anyway on with the program. This week I have taken a good look at what is happening on both leads. On the right lead there are no issues and changing from right to left again no issues. On the left lead he pops his head up as soon as you ask for lead departure and this carries on through the circle work.
Because of this, I have taken the problem a stage back, I have work on gettig him to hold his collection at walk without over reacting to leg pressure. This I have repeated at jog again until he can maintain good cadence without over reaction. The next stage is carefully setting up for a departure then instead of departing releasing him back down to his existing gait. I repeated this until he could get into the departure position and remain relaxed. After a dozen or so times, I released him into the lope. This was very sucsessful, resulting in a much more relaxed departure and a much smoother circle.
I also note that during this exercise I found that I tend toride stronger with my legs on the right lead than I do on the left lead. After realising this I found tha I am inadvertantly backing off with my legs on the left lead and Pee Wee is taking advantage of this situation by cheating when he senses this and I then correct his cheat by giving a stronger cue resulting in a kickout during the change.
I will continue to work on this and concentrate on holding Pee Wee through the change in the same way that I set up the departure, however not completing the change but continuing in the same lead.
