Forward, Forward, Forward

Izzy has waffled between too much forward and not enough. In other words, he evaded by bolting (too much forward) or balking (not enough). It's taken me a while to work through both issues. 

I've been pretty frustrated with him this summer. I've come very close to putting him up for sale, but deep down, I KNOW this horse has huge potential. I am just not ready to quit. When I think about selling him, I always imagine it would be to a stronger, more knowledgeable rider.

That got me thinking. It's not Izzy. There's nothing wrong with him. It's really just me; I need to be a better, stronger rider. As I saddled up on Wednesday, I started asking myself what would a better rider do? All of a sudden, I remembered that super controversial interview with Katie Prudent. She said something that really resonated with me.

see if you can take that animal and get him to do what you want to do.

I decided to take her advice and see if I could get him to do what I wanted. I wasn't going to force him necessarily, but I was going to quite accepting no for an answer.

From our July lesson with Chemaine Hurtado

I started out with the shoulder in exercises that Chemaine showed me last week. But instead of asking him if he wanted to bend his neck, I took hold of the inside rein and did a shoulder in. And I didn't let him out of it until he softened to the inside rein.

And it worked. All of a sudden, I had some bend and he wasn't bracing against the rein. We walked all over the arena changing the bend from right to left. When I felt that he was supple enough at the walk, we did it at the trot. When he said no to the bend, I insisted with added leg.

​And he did it.

Also from last week's lesson.

Then I asked for the canter. He picked it up grudgingly, but then he said no. He balked. He tightened his back and threw up his head, and cried about how he simply couldn't. I realized right then and there that a stronger, better rider would realize that the correct thing to ask for was more FORWARD. And I did.

I cowgirled up and kicked the crap out of him. He grunted and tucked his butt and pinned his ears, but with enough kicking, he shot forward. It dawned on me that softness or bend don't matter if he won't go forward. I quit caring what he looked like or even which lead he was on. The second he hesitated, I kicked the crap out of him again. And again. And again. And again.

There were two spots in the arena that he just didn't want to canter past. I was relentless though. I growled, and kicked, and made a lot of noise when he even thought about slowing down. Within a very short time, his neck softened up, and started to ask if he could stretch a little in the canter.

I am sure all of our problems weren't solved by a little kicking and yelling, but it sure did a lot for my confidence. The scales are tipping in my favor, if ever so slowly. I got his number this time, and that always helps!