Rally & Rosso

Hez saved a 2nd person from the same mistake I made in the last post in a round about way.

I went to the drop-in rally class Friday night and a woman there is entered in the same show with her German Shepherd dog. Somehow we got on the subject of Novice A vs. Novice B... she made the same mistake I did. She put an obedience title on a dog about 15 yrs ago.

I told her the trial secretary was able to move me into Novice B and she should e-mail her right away. See how awesome Hez is? Saving us returning and clueless dog performance people from ourselves.

I had a ride on Rosso yesterday.

I hadn't ridden him for two weeks with Christmas and New Years weekends I don't trust him outside at my place, and yeah, we'll get there one o' these days, but in the meantime, I'm using the indoor arena and the watchful eye o' my most excellent friend and trainer!

He needed some face time even tho' it's always very tempting to ride Sera because I have so much fun, I'm learning all sorts of new things and I don't have any brain bugs about her..

Rosso was very pleasant... I lunged him and he was quite obedient... I took him to the middle of the arena and climbed on. He stood quietly like a good boy. I sat on him and scritched his withers...told him what a smart, good boy he was and asked for walk. Away we went...

The arena had 2 other horses and probably 6 people including Rex... it's a small dressage arena 20 x 60... and it was busy and loud. After a short walk break, Rosso popped up in front giving his head a shake because he didn't really feel like going back to trot.

I stayed on. I stayed calm. I pushed him forward and he gave it up. I wasn't shaky afterwards and all remained well. Yay for me! Y'all know I've been getting over some pretty big brain bugs with him for a while... been worried they might reappear if he showed some "behavior".

We moved on... after another walk break we were going to move into right lead canter. Just about this time the other two horses left the arena along with all the people save Rex. Rosso didn't like being abandoned. He wanted to run, fret, go sideways vs. straight, shake his head and in general act like a big idjit.

And ya know what?

I stayed on and I stayed calm.

Who IS this person??

We stayed on a 20 meter circle, spiral in, spiral out, change direction in the circle, spiral in, spiral out.. asking him to focus on ME while staying forward. Before ya know it his trot became rhythmic, he was reaching into my hand and his ears began swiveling back to see what I wanted next.

We never really did get to right lead canter because he worked hard learning to listen to me. But it's all quite fine with me.... think it was a lesson well learned for him and for me. We'll get to right lead canter next time. He got over himself pretty fast and I rode him through it without getting a bad case o' the jello legs.