Training Opportunities

"Training opportunities" abounded in our last few rides - things out of our control I wasn't sure how Cupid would react to.  For instance, on Tuesday I had just gotten on in the covered arena when someone began drilling and working on something behind the mirrors.  Cupid startled a bit, but I asked him to keep walking.  We did some walk work, staying at the other end of the arena and I kept asking him to focus on me.  He was slightly distracted but being good, so we went up in the trot.  We gradually increased the size of our circles/figures to about 3/4 of the arena and I just kept my leg on and asked him to work. 

On Wednesday we were taking what was supposed to be a leisurely walk around the property.  Ahead of us I saw someone taking a horse out from it's pasture, and his buddy who was left behind got upset calling and running around.  I've seen Cupid get pretty excited by this in the past (his tail shoots straight up and he starts prancing!) and I briefly considered hopping off.  But instead I just sat up straight and tried to relax (no clamping with the knees or choking up the reins!), keep my leg on, and continue walking.  No big deal.  It's taken me a while to feel confident doing this, and to switch my thinking from trying to comfort Cupid (patting his neck and telling him it's ok, letting him stop and look) to being the leader and telling him we're just going to keep working. 

We had a great lesson on Thursday.  The outdoor arena was finally open, though it was still a bit wet.  Not slippery, but a bit heavier and perhaps more tiring.  Even though we hadn't been out there in a while, Cupid was great!  We are still focusing on correcting how I maintain contact to increase roundness.  I'm slowly improving, but I still tend to float my inside hand away from the neck, or cross the left hand over the neck when we're tracking right.  I'm working on using my inside leg more for a correct bend, instead of relying on the inside rein.

One of the exercises we did was trot a 5 meter circle, shoulder in when we're back on the rail for several steps, straighten and increase the trot, and repeat.  We also worked on cantering 10 meter circles, which we haven't done in a while and had a little trouble with especially going right.  Cupid felt a bit tired and was drifting out.  My trainer made us repeat, I was starting to feel bad for Cupid and finally pictured a barrel racer.  It wasn't pretty, but good enough that our trainer let us go back down to a trot - for a minute, then we changed direction and did it again the other way which went a little better. 

On Friday I thought we would keep it fairly light - walk around the property for about 10 minutes, then pop into the ring for some trot work.  Unlike the day before, Cupid was spooking at everything around the arena.  These are the same things that are always there - a mounting block, chair, wheel barrow, cavaletti.  Currently it seems like for every 2-3 times he is perfect outside we have one ride when he's just really distracted, though he usually gets over it after about 10-15 minutes.

I made sure my whip was in my inside hand and kept my inside leg on trying to keep him on the rail, and any time he even thought about spooking we did a 5 meter circle.  I could feel Cupid really suck back so I tried to drive him forward.  After about 10 minutes he finally went down the long side calmly, so I gave him a pat and we let him walk, and we finished cooling off walking around outside.

All the scary things