Apollo is such a good boy. He trailered up without issue and settled right in. He's been eating, peeing and pooping normally, something that always puts a horseowner's mind at ease! Its been brutally hot, but he seems to be handling it well.
Looking this way......
And that way.........
Figuring out he has an option to go backwards instead of forward all the time
Alan came up with me and stayed to watch me ride. He watched the riders before me come in with a plan and something to work on. He kept asking me what I was going to work on, I kept saying, I don't know! He'd follow me around, you don't know, aren't you supposed to know? Finally he said, I wish you'd find out how to stop him from running over me and pulling me around, so seeing as Apollo is supposed to be his horse (hahaha) that is what I asked Mark for help with. We've not been willing to just put up the boundary and let him run into it and work through it. It didn't take long before he realized he had the option to go backwards instead of always forward and I actually had time to get on and do some mounted work. Backing was one thing to clear up undersaddle too. I learned that I can pull on him, even with not much pressure because my hand was coming back to my body instead of setting a boundary and staying in one place, so always moving the boundary and confusing him. He learned to soften up and move back nicely. We tried the Rocking S snaffle bit on him as he is a little worried about the bit. He seemed to do better in it. When we went to work with Crissi, I used our bit and he was much quieter in it, so maybe he'll be okay in that one. We worked on getting Apollo stopped softly too. I alway count in my head the gait I want, 1,2,3,4 for walk, 1,2 for trot and 1,2,3 for canter. By the time we gallop, I'm just flying with him, LOL! Anyway, to get the stop, Mark had me just count the back footsteps, 1,2 - 1,2. You prepare to stop yourself, on 1 you breath out and stop and if the horse doesn't do it, on 2 you lift the rein. It took a bit for me to get this and I was still struggling a bit with the timing, etc. when we finished our session.
Not sure what I'm doing in this picture, but look how soft and rounded Apollo is!
At lunch break, I gave the big guy a bath and let him relax while I ate lunch. Tim H. said he loved my horse and if I ever wanted to sell him, let him know first! Lunch was great and then back to work with Crissi.
My time with Crissi was so fun. She lowered my stirrups quite a lot, no one else has said they were way too short! It was more comfortable for sure. Anyway, we started with the stopping softly and in a few short minutes, Apollo started stopping as soon as I started thinking 1,2! I waited for him to soften and he worked that out quite quickly, with some backing here and there when he got stuck, then we started softening to the bit, asking for just 3 soft steps at first. I learned I needed to use shorter reins than I'm used to to get and keep that connection right now. We ended with him able to take 5 soft steps and stopping softly. Crissi really liked him too, he's been a big hit here! He's such a nice, sweet horse, you just want to hug him! He's very smart too, and today some of the worry lines around his eyes disappeared. Crissi told me he had a whole different look on his face at the end than when we started. It was nice to see. I learned to mentally soften my hands and offer him softness, it was pretty cool when I could do that and he went right with me! Another thing I realized was how important it is to stay focused and with him. I was trying to listen to a story that Mark was telling the next rider, people were laughing and it sounded like a great story, but as soon as I took my attention away from what I was doing, Apollo started offering different things like he was kind of lost and searching for me again. They were just little things, but I felt a definite difference and when I came back to him, he came right back to me! Can't wait for tomorrow to see what we learn together!
I wore this shirt the first day. My daughter got it after her drill team performed at the Rally. When Mark asked me with I wanted to do, I pointed to my shirt and said "Begin the Dance!"
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