A bit cool today, and heavy rain again during the morning, settling down to grey, cool and about to rain this afternoon. I stopped by to see Max first thing this morning before work, to give him a quick check, make sure he had enough hay and give him a small pear. I'd bought pears the night before just for him. He loves them when they're all soft and ripe, and gets frothy pear whiskers, but he seems equally delighted with them when they're like this morning's pear, quite firm and crunchy.
Back at about two o'clock this afternoon to work with him, and felt rather limited in what we could do given the weather, so ho hum, back into the indoor school with his Dually, roller and long lines. It's often the sessions that start out "ho hum" that end up being the most successful.
I walked him in a bit, and then we concentrated on steering to the pressure and release, doing serpentines and figures of eight. Max responded incredibly well, and only got confused and lost when I was blocking him, which confused and lost me. So I observed to see where I was going wrong, and I could figure that out quickly enough by watching Max.
I decided not to use the driving whip this time. It's too cumbersome to try and hold that and the lines, and still have effective hands. Instead, I brought along his regular lead rope, which I dragged along the ground behind him, with the occasional flick of the wrist causing it to snake along behind his legs, encouraging him to lift his head and pick up his pace. It worked a treat, and was much easier to deal with than the driving whip. It didn't distract Max as much either, which was a bonus.
For real forward motion, gathering the lead rope up so that I could use it with a jump rope action well behind him was also very effective.
We did some fine trotting on both reins, back to walk and stand on voice. Then I decided to try reining him back from behind him on the lines. We've never been able to manage it before, ridden or on lines, and I wasn't really expecting much from him this time either, but Max picked up the cue very quickly.
First time it was a hesitant step backwards, and as soon as I saw him making that move, I clicked, released the pressure, and walked to his head to give him a pony nut.
We tried again, and again, a hesitant step back. Rinse and repeat, and by the fourth try, he stepped back with confidence, so another click treat, and back to walking the circle , then trotting.
By the end of the session, Max was coming back from trot to stand, and then, with almost no pressure and my voice saying "Back", he was taking multiple steps backwards in a straight line. What a clever boy!
Rein back is a very useful thing to add to our repertoire. I won't try it from the saddle until I'm very sure he has it really sorted, but today was a fine start down that road.
We left the school and went back to the yard the long way round, stopping by my car for his second small pear of the day, and then out to his field. He had a drink, and then rather than leaving him, I walked towards the middle of the field, sat myself down and watched him for about 20 minutes. He grazed for a bit, slowly working his way towards me until he was standing next to where I was sitting, grazing contentedly and giving me the occasional nudge.
His field mates eventually meandered over to join us, and I left them to it, but I took a little bit of their peace with me.
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