Is Izzy Still Around?

While Izzy hasn't been around much on the blog, he's still getting worked daily. As of right now, he seems to have moved on from an I am a jackass, watch my dick moves attitude. He's still special, and by special I don't mean he's worth $80,000 special. He's short bus special, which means he requires a great deal of tact and patience that's not for every rider. Good thing he has me. I have loads of tact and patience; I teach kids after all. 

A "special" moment from 2016.

Since I switched to the legal bit for every ride, every time, we've gone through some ... moments. There was a week or three of him bolting through my aids, another week or two of him balking and rearing, and then a week or so of him combining all of that into one grand gesture.

A "grand gesture" moment from 2016. And no, that is not me yanking him into a rear. That's him balking and then bolting forward. Good times!

Every ride I remind him that the rules are no different with this bit. In fact, the rules are quite simple: no looking around, no hanging on my hands, no stopping when you're mad, and no bolting when you don't get your way. Easy, right? 

For the past several weeks, our rides have been about steadying the connection. I am totally happy to work on that. We start at the walk with me asking him to stretch forward and down - he loves that part. We then turn that into a medium walk where he has to lift his withers a bit and carry his own head. 

When the walk is more or less established, we pick up the trot where we do the same thing. I say only three things as we work - Nope, nope, nope ... Yes. Nope, nope, nope, Yes! And every once in a while, I get to throw in a good boy! which is all too often cut short by another string of nopes.

He even looks sassy just standing there!

I am honestly really happy with how he's working right now. He's genuinely trying to figure it out, and he looks so proud of himself when he finally gets it. Just the other day we were doing pretty decent trot half passes. His stretchy trot needs a ton of work but the lateral work is nothing for the big brown horse.

If we ever get to show again, we're coming out at Second Level where no stretchy trot is required. Bring on the half pass and flying changes - you know, the easy stuff!