Yesterday, I made time to ride both Cowboy and Dublin. Without getting the attention he needs, Dublin is not making much progress in some areas; mainly, he is still very defensive about his "personal space" and tries to bite if he feels he is being touched in a threatening manner--like being brushed, for example, or being saddled. This will work itself in time as he gets more good experiences, but of course he needs to get those good experiences! He is still fussy about his feet, although he has made enormous progress in that area. It is now actually possible to clean his feet without feeling like you are taking your life in your hands! My Parelli coach, Julia, suggested putting a rope around his foot to pick it up--that way, if he gets fractious, you can step back out of harm's way without putting his foot down and therefore rewarding the undesirable behavior. So I tried that and discovered, interestingly enough, that he seems to be familiar with this technique. All I need to do is drape a rope around his foot and all the fight goes out of him. His attitude changes to "OK, fine, I know there isn't anything I can do about this."

He worked great on the ground yesterday. I'm working on driving him and he is doing well. Steering can still be a little problematic! But he doesn't have a problem with me standing at his hindquarters and giving him directions. The biggest issue with Dublin is getting him to accept direction cheerfully as his first inclination is to question your authority and get offended by the fact that you have the AUDACITY to tell him what to do. So one of my goals is to figure out how to push those buttons a bit so we can trigger and work through those reactions, all without getting hurt! He likes to bite, strike and kick, so a 22-foot rope and a carrot stick with a string are great tools to give yourself some distance and still cue him.

He was very nice under saddle. Finally, he is responding reasonably well to leg pressure. One of the techniques Julia suggested is the Parelli "thunk thunk" method. Cue him with my leg, if he doesn't respond, use the carrot stick to "thunk" him lightly. If he doesn't respond to that in about 3 seconds, thunk him again but double the intensity. Keep that up until he responds. This is good one for Dublin because it is consistent, and it tends to trigger defensiveness but not to the point of being dangerous. And after about the fourth "thunk", he seems to debate whether it is worth getting into a fight (the head goes up, he slows down, and gets tense), or to just yield, and so far, he is deciding to yield. I think that because he can predict that the thunks are going to get more intense, and he has that little pause in between, he gets a chance to decide how to react without getting "reactive". And once he yields, the thunking stops so he is rewarded for making the right decision. It worked nicely yesterday! Of course, horses are full of surprises, so next time I may find that he has mulled this over and come up with a new coping strategy.

Yesterday we walked and trotted. Because his workouts have been wildly inconsistent, I'm not ready to push him into a canter yet (we cantered early in the year, right before I got hurt and sidelined for several months, but after that layoff we have been set back significantly). He does have the most beautiful floating canter, though, and I'm anxious to get working on that! He's probably ready but I need to work on both my physical and emotional fitness before going there. Not to mention working on riding the horse more consistently!

I have a phone conference in a week with Julia and should shoot some video for that call, so there should be something to watch within the week.