Ride 3 today! The lead rope came off and it was just me and Dublin, tearing around the arena at a slow crawl.

I had my phone conference with Julia this morning and we talked about strategies going forward. I changed his bit, using a thinner snaffle and reins with slobber straps--the idea is more motivation to yield to pressure, and the slobber straps help to relieve the pressure faster when I release the reins. The next three rides should be passenger lessons, and then I can start directing him, going immediately to working him in patterns--no aimless meandering. Also work on getting him to stand still for mounting. Up till now, Laura has been holding hm when I mount, so I wasn't sure what to expect.

But Dublin was a champ. He wasn't entirely sure about those slobber straps--I'm sure they didn't use anything like THAT at the track! As before, he mouthed the bit like crazy, and then settled down with a quiet mouth. He's had a lot of dental work since coming here, and I wonder if he's anticipating some mouth pain that no longer exists.

I got him lined up with the mounting block (no way I'm getting on this tall boy from the ground!), and he did a small amount of moving around, then stood still. I put my foot in the stirrup and did a couple false starts, then put a hip in the saddle and checked him out. Head down, standing still, looking bored. Next time I swung a leg over and settled in the saddle. Nothing.

I got him moving with very little trouble and then tried a passenger lesson. Basically, this means you just sit there, hand on the horse's neck with a loose rein, and let the horse do what he wants. Have to admit I was not quite that nonchalant about it but he was fine. The only problem with the passenger lesson was that he moved from the gate to one grassy patch to another grassy patch and then back to the gate. I did have to direct him a bit so we didn't spend all our time at his favorite places.

We finally stopped at the fence to talk to Laura, and he decided to explore this slobber strap business a bit by tossing his head up and down to see what they would do--which was to swing back and forth. He thought it was more interesting than distressing. This guy is every bit as level-headed as I had hoped. He may wind up being steadier and easier than Cowboy. Don't tell Cowboy.

So now that milestone is out of the way--we have ventured around the arena without the safety net of someone holding on to a lead rope. This is a way more cautious approach than I would have taken years ago, but that was a few concussions and bruises ago. I'll stick with slow and steady.