Dublin got about 20 minutes of directed riding today. We worked on stick to the rail, point to point and some cloverleaf patterns. And a bit of "Stand Still" thrown in for good measure. He was nice and solid. If he gets upset, his head comes up and he starts to toss his head. My cue to make sure I'm sitting nice and deep in the saddle, my hands are down, and my shoulders are nowhere in the vicinity of my ears. We had neighbors emptying trash cans, blowing objects, and at one point a deer went bounding by. He stops and looks and the head comes up, but that's pretty much the extent of it. Once he was moving comfortably and getting used to the idea of being sent off in different directions occasionally, we did a bit of trotting.
The saddle sits a bit low on his back and needs some shimming but it's not too bad. That will get fixed before we do anything fancy.
After his ride, we did a little trailer loading work. He got in my trailer but it's pretty open. We're planning on taking him to Pt Reyes in a couple weeks to try ponying him on the trail, and he'll be going in Laura's trailer. It's bigger than mine, but there is a tack room in the back that makes it seem more enclosed. He did okay--got his front feet in several times but he's not too sure about going all the way in. He actually got less confident as time went on. This may be like the saddling desensitization--the longer it takes, the more suspicious of the whole procedure he gets. We'll see how it goes. We want him nice and comfortable in there before we hit the road with him and two other horses.
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