I did a full Pre-Ride Checkup with him, which he found boring. Circle both ways at all 3 gaits with the saddle on. Go over a jump. Flip the rope over his head and hindquarters. Flip the rope onto his other side and guide it over his hindquarters to have him do a 360 . Big yawn.
Laura was standing by as this was essentially going to be a pony ride. He got the hackamore on and I clambered aboard. Dublin stood rock still with his head down and relaxed. Then we headed off with Laura leading and Dublin following quite happily along. We did a couple laps around the arena, got some pictures, and I dismounted uneventfully. We like "uneventful" around here.
As you can see by the pictures, I'm pretty happy and Dublin is pretty bored. The tongue sticking out in the second photo speaks volumes.
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| Dublin seems to be saying "gag me!" |
So that threshold has been crossed and now we can enter the next stage. It only took 5 1/2 months to get here, which was probably a lot longer than necessary, but I am glad we took the time to build trust and establish leadership. The trust we've been working on up til now has mostly been about Dublin learning to trust me, but I think this next stage will be more about me learning to trust him. In the very short ride today, I discovered that if I keep my hands down and the reins loose, Dublin will keep his head down and stay relaxed. If I lifted my hands or got brace-y, he got uneasy. He also got uneasy when Laura stopped leading him and walked away to get the camera. At which point I also got uneasy and lifted my hands, shortened the reins and braced in the stirrups. And he let me know he did not like it and it made him insecure. So I'm going to have to learn to trust him, stay loose, and let him move his feet if he needs to.
A very short video clip of the first ride:
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