Looking for the Sweet Spot

In keeping with the how many licks does it take to get to a Tootsie Roll Pop's chewy center? theme, I've thought about how many times I've ridden Izzy. According to some scientists, it takes 364 licks to get to the good part of a Tootsie Pop. I've had Izzy for two years and three months - not quite long enough to get 364 rides in on him, but I am probably getting close.

He doesn't know, but it has been proposed that it takes 364.

Kind of a dumb metaphor, I know, but that's how it feels riding Izzy. Sometimes I think I'll never get where I want to be, and then suddenly, some of the yummy candy pokes through, and I know I am close. Like yesterday for example - we had an amazing ride! Granted, it was 80 degrees, and he was a little tired from a lesson, but still.

Yesterday, I shared two exercises from Chemaine: suppling with just a seat bone and getting a stretch down before changing the bend. Here's a quick peek at how we warm up. There's nothing fancy here since I can't ask for a lot early on until he loosens his back.

There were three other tricks that Chemaine showed me. I'll share the last one tomorrow, but for today, here are two more: more inside bend and a firmer outside rein when he wants to whirl away from something, and kick his ass for felonies while letting the misdemeanors slide.

Not quite a felony.

The video for that blooper "hop" is just below. This is an excellent example of needing more inside bend with a firmer outside rein. He loves to dive in at that exact spot. I tend to counter flex which allows the inside shoulder to be falling in - exactly what I don't want. It took a few passes, but with Chemaine encouraging me to get more inside bend while planting the outside rein, we eventually got through the corner successfully.

Chemaine pointed out that during these spooks, riders often lose focus and forget the original goal because the horse has distracted us to the point where we deal with the spook and not what we were trying to achieve. She encouraged me to look at it as a show of disrespect because he's not doing what I am asking.

Mad pony trying to decide whether to stay mad or let it go.

One thing I've learned about Izzy recently is that if I "insist" too long and hard, he gets mad, stays mad, and then can't remember why he's mad. On those days, I might as well just give it up. Those kind of rides don't happen as much anymore because I try very hard not to let anything escalate.

As hard as it is going to be though, Chemaine told me that I have to get tough again. She explained that I need to categorize his naughties into misdemeanors and felonies. I can let the misdemeanors slide, but the felonies will require swift and sure consequences.

In the video above, some of that is me saying you will move somewhere, but a lot of it is him saying NO NO NO. While he wasn't in full felony mode, he had definitely left the land of misdemeanors. The instant he agreed to go forward, life was good.

Here's another example of not-quite-a-felony, but he got a full on spur in his guts to say MOVE IT, mister.

It's hard cherry picking all of these bad moments to show you because he was actually pretty good for this lesson. Yes, he fussed and whined at me, but compared to last month when Chemaine just sat there saying just stay with him, we actually got some good work out of him.

Every month, the gap between the good moments gets smaller and smaller. A year ago, we struggled with the canter and any type of connection, Now, even with all of the jackassery going on, getting the correct canter lead isn't even an issue. Holding the lead isn't either. He's got the moves, I just need to keep convincing him that this can actually be fun and easy.

Tomorrow, Chemaine's best trick of the weekend revealed.