Lesson with Terri

Tues 14th Oct 09
Not much time to write so will try to be succinct!

Had a great lesson with loads to work on now on the ground:

• Extreme FG - used an orange bag - D unconfident being touched with it and when made a scrunchy sound. Also do more banging around with BB pad. Careful not to put too much pressure on tho & cause D to go extreme RBI
• Driving from Z4- this was really fun. D liked it too - less crabby than when I'm in Z2/3. Had some lovely back-ups too.
• Weave from a distance - T had to hold the back of my jeans to stop me drifting forward with the drive! Also gotta remember to go to neutral when D doing the right thing so he learns pattern by himself
• Circling - Find NEUTRAL! I'm still egging D on after he's moved up a gear! D was really good on circling today - been getting progressively better (with treats for a small effort!)
• Don't porcupine back onto things if D unconfident - this could be too much pressure

One funny bit when we were driving, D was walking along rather slowly so T told me to slow down to stay in Z4. However, this caused D to show off his latest trick of keeping pace with me and even lifting his front feet in a tiny spanish walk!

On board was interesting, D great to get on, was relaxed and confident - impatient to eat! This changed after I asked him to disengage the HQs - which I haven't done for a while (deliberately as it's asking him to move his feet!) D became unconfident which made me a bit unconfident too. Had to get off and run up and down a bit. I'm seeing a theme of changing the pattern leading to skepticism and braciness.

I got back on and T put a string round Ms neck to see if D would follow him a few steps but, right away, D's head came right up and neck braced so I got off and we changed tack as I wasn't getting a good feeling about it! I had to circle D a bit until we got back to where he was emotionally before (although he was still a bit tense in his back).

Weird, I noticed again that D is quite happy to walk about with me lying over him but when I sit up, he doesn't want to move his feet. This is either a) because he has not accepted the human being up so high or b) sitting up means riding whereas lying over does not. If I didn't know D, I'd think the latter was a bit imaginative but, as he knows putting a hat on means riding, it's quite plausible.

Interesting, when he walked off with me lying over however, he took me to the shed again!! Would have taken me in if I hadn't jumped off!

We finished with me just sitting, Terri got D interested in her by nibbling treats, then he followed her about a bit - during which time he was very relaxed. In an ideal world, we'd have a round pen with good footing to get D used to going forward without too much space for mischief. For the moment, however, I'm going to keep going with my sitting passenger and emergency dismounts. I figure that D will eventually get confident enough to walk about. Maybe I will have to put aside 2 days for it!

Ooh, mustn't forget...Fab porcpines from the nose, barely any resistance and very little rope chewing today either. Hurrah! Progress!!!