On Tuesday night after work, Lisa and I loaded up Ringo and Seal and headed down to Horseman's. My goal was to get Ringo to respond to neck and leg pressure without using the bit pressure. We had worked on this a bit about a week previous and he did well so I was planning on building on the progress we had made in the last session.
I got Ringo saddled up and we went into the big roping arena and boy was I surprised!! Where I thought we had a "start" on neck reining, ended up being about 80% response from him!! Pleasant surprises are always welcome. I did use a heavier rein on him this session and that may have been helpful in his response. I was working at all three gaits and there were only a couple of times that I had to apply a slight amount of pressure directly on the bit.
We were also working on stopping with just verbal commands and body position, (no reins), and he did great. I was getting solid stops as well as slide stops just sitting back in the saddle and telling him whoa.
We will see how it goes today.......
wauw that sounds great! It is hard to learn that. Some horses pick it up easy, but some horse (like my SPirit) it took some time before he got it. Are you going to show him too?, I like to see some pic how he does ;-)
ReplyDeleteFantastic! Sounds like a super great day for you and Ringo!
ReplyDeleteI agree with you on the pleasant surprises! It is always great to find out that your horse is doing so well and picks up something new much faster than you thought! Sounds like Ringo is doing great!
ReplyDeletePlease let me know what kind of heavier rein - Bruce and I need this. I usually ride in a cotton roping rein, but when I ride with the leather splits, he isn't as responsive?
ReplyDeleteVery good job! I love these kind of surprises :)
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