So Cello is starting to feel less like a free-range buffalo and more like a developing dressage horse. I gave his owner a lesson on him yesterday and it was fantastic. He goes for her much like he goes for me, always letting you know whenever one of your aids is ineffective or you've neglected to take the time to prepare or prevent things. The better you ride, the better he goes.

I rode him today and he was quite good - but hot again. He wasn't hot with his owner yesterday, but he was a bit spooky. They are preparing for a big derby on the weekend so mowing the cross country field and moving jumps and stuff - he notices everything. Also I think he's getting fit and feeling good! His topline is really starting to develop - you can clearly see the muscle growing in front of his wither and along the top of his neck  - the dip in front of his wither is filling in nicely. Also his shoulders, croup, and haunches are getting larger. It's amazing how quickly their bodies adapt to a workout regime!

I switched his bit back to his double-jointed loosering - he wasn't feeling like I anticipated he would in the thicker single-jointed bit, so I switched him back. He feels better - maybe his mouth is smaller than I thought it was. Anyways, he feels better and has more suds (lip foam).

I am continuing with the leg yields on the wall and now from the centerline to the rail, and they feel almost like he's been doing them forever - but they are better off my right leg than off my left - he's a very one-sided guy, his left side is going to be his achilles heel for a while. I am not quite sure how I'm going to sort it out yet. I need my coach to come up and give me her opinion. For now I am just making sure he doesn't show me his right jaw when travelling on the left rein, and making sure to ride him in shoulder-fore at all times, encouraging the left hind to step up and under. I need to think about it a bit more, what exactly I need to do to fix it properly.

He has learned shoulder-in, travers, and also the fundamentals of half pass. I played around with turn-on-the-haunches today, but not an immobile TOH, more of a working walk pirouette. To the right they are easy, going left, not easy. Ugh.

Also, since he was not friendly with the whip when I first started riding him, I have slowly been incorporating it into our toolbox, so he isn't afraid of it, and has learned what I expect from him when I tap him with it. He's not running away from it any more, he just gives an extra oomph to his stride by lowering his haunches and bending the joints more. That was all so I could entertain the notion of starting half-steps with him. Half-steps are fun for the horses - many opportunities to praise big-time and give sugar. Hell, I'd do half steps if it meant I got that kind of treatment!

So I started those today. The way I start half-steps is from the saddle, in walk. I make sure the horse is in shoulder-fore, is round on the outside rein, and feels like he wants to take my inside rein forward and down. I half halt, still my seatbones, bring both legs back from the hip about an inch, and tap directly on the top of the croup with my dressage whip. If the horse goes faster, halt or half halt and bring them back underneath your center of gravity, trying again. They must learn not to rush off in the walk, just to start moving their hind legs, preferably in a trot rhythm, without bracing through the topline. I don't care if they kick out once or twice, trot, bump their croup up, etc. All I want is a reaction from the haunches that does not include bullying past my hand or tensing up in the neck.

Cello was smart - within a few minutes he understood when the little adjustments with my legs and seat meant, and all I had to do was tap once or twice on his croup and he gave a few little half steps. When I trotted a bit afterwards, it felt like a 3rd level trot - he found his suspension and cadence. It felt great!

Cantering was fine today too - I've decided to do walk-canter transitions because that's how I train my young horses and I find it means less chaos, and a simpler way to teach them to canter in self-carriage, instead of on the forehand from trot. I have said before it is much harder to do a good trot-canter transition keeping the horse from getting on the forehand or speeding up, than it is to just pick up the canter from a walk. Cello feels more organized, more supple and less tense when I do this.

So, all in all it was a very productive day! He's feeling pretty good and even the barn owner said he looks much better now than she has ever seen him in his whole life. Granted, he had some not-wonderful years, but still it's a nice comment.