Ronin's beginnings (work session 1-3)

Ronin is a 5yo TB that stands somewhere around 15hh. He is very alert-eager to communicate and please. His movement is a little quick and nervous but amazing. I am thrilled to work with a horse of his caliber.

He is already under saddle and I am riding him to get him going and keep him fit and ride able until his mom comes home from overseas.

The first time I lunged Ronin he has was very excited....ran circles around me, diving in and diving out. He was trotting so fast and with so much engagement he looked like a tarantula! I tried a few different things to get him to slow down. Its been a long time since I focused on creating balance, straightness, and contact on the lunge without the use of auxillary reins....took me a little while to find Ronin's particular language. First I tried wiggling the lunge line on the side of the circle he had been diving in on (diving in, for those of you that do not know horsey lingo means that the horse is making the circle smaller , generally this means they are putting more weight on their inside shoulder). Second, I used my whip to try to move his barrel out by pointing at the spot right behind the girth with my lunge whip. Third, I tried shaking the lunge line harder and gave a little tug on it. He just started going faster! I stood there for a second and it hit me. It has been so long since I had lunged anyone but Joker and Marc (Joker who is voice and body trained, Marc who is body trained) and they are so confirmed in their lunging manners I forgot... One of my favorite tools to use with a horse that has lost control on a lunge circle and is too excited to interfere with: Changing your height. So I just squatted down...and he stopped, turned to look at me, and said "Whats going on? Why did you do that?"

Yes. This is a moment to live for. The moments that you figure out one thing about a horses language and you can get through to them. Now I have his attention.

So we lunged the rest of the session pretty nicely due to the newfound "downward transition button" of squatting. I did not ride him this time as he had a hard time finding his relaxation in the first place.

The second time I lunged him he was a completely different horse. He was relaxed.....swingy through his back....stretching his neck down and forward....nice long rythmic strides. I lunged him a few minutes in each direction and then got on. I had to pick up the contact right away because he was very ADDHD....looking at the mounting block, the mirrors, the ray of light, a pigeon feather on the ground, pigeons in the rafters flying around "EEEEEKK!!" Ronin says to all of these things...tenses his back and squirts forward a few steps. I just exhale and go with him...laughing at his boyishness. It is all very innocent energy...I trust this horse already. I ask him to go around in trot and he is relieved to get the energy out....we worked on a few trot, walk, trot transitions and lengthening and shortening our trot strides....be bopped around in two point for a minute and called it quits. It was a very nice first ride. This horse give me a lot of good feedback on my communication abilities.

The third time I worked with Ronin was like we had been doing this for years. Now I am trying to really refine his responsiveness to my body on the lunge....I am not to use the whip or the rope at all. The rope's only purpose is to control the straightness of his head and keep him on the circle. It seems to me that downward transitions are something Ronin needs to work on really badly. If you don't keep his attention he just gets sucked into this black hole of running around like a speedy-gonzolaz-tarantula. We worked on our transitions again....lots of Trot to Canter transitions on the right because he is not as confident in his canter strike-off on that side (I say this because he will sometimes cross canter on this side, showing me that there is a lack of flexibility, strength, and co-ordination in his hind legs). This is natural for a horse that has not been worked properly....or in Ronin's case a horse that has not been worked for a few months. It is especially common in stall bound horses and breeds with short croups (Arabs, Saddlebreds). Lunged him in both directions and them rode. Under saddle we worked on rhythm, relaxation, and stride length. I do not want to canter him undersaddle yet as he is still too unbalanced in the canter on the lunge and I feel it would be unfair. He has been tossing his head a little and his teeth have not been done in awhile....I called his owners and the vet is coming to do his teeth soon (His owners are really good people too!). No use working on a real contact until then, I don't wanna spoil the little guy's outlook on life. Ronin thinks I am just the coolest person around! I want to keep it that way.