Clever boy!

More observing of Max today. Ent came with me and it was good to have an extra pair of hands, although I sometimes wish he was slightly more experienced, I have to keep my eye on him as much as Max. Ent can't really read Max that well so doesn't anticipate and doesn't always see when it's not a good plan to take the mint lick out of reach.

Anyway, I went into the school before them and left my working whip in there so we could see how he dealt with it - I didn't want to be carrying it as we went into the school.

That went pretty well. No head collar, just Ent at his head with the lick and me working all the way round him with the whip. Again, a couple of hesitations, but he got over it, stayed relaxed, and I put it away.

I set up the "L" again, and after some out in the open practice with backing up and moving quarters, we had a go in the "L" with his head collar on. Ent held and I directed. A bit hesitant, but Max did it. Tried a second time to get more "flow" and steady movement and that was good. He improved and was very happy with all the clicks and praise.

Ent then took Max off for a bit of in hand (Ent is very good at this and gentle with it), and I decided to try a little lunge on the head collar (no whip) just a couple of circles in each direction to see how Max coped with it.

Well, we went from happy, bubbly and willing pony to pissed off pony in seconds. He didn't look at all confused or like he wanted to hide, he just looked narked.

"No, No, NO!"

Got two good transitions out of him though, and switched to long lines and the whole school. Still pretty begrudging, but better than on a single line and a bit more energy for sure. Got him to back up (did that with the lunge too) and rewarded.

Then you know what he did? My clever boy followed me when I asked him, and allowed me to position him at the top of the "L" (he was naked at this point, no head collar).

Then we did a pretty much flawless reverse through that "L" on voice and pointing alone. No hesitation, hardly a step wrong.

Clever Max! He was just brilliant and he got a big jackpot for that one!

I think that's pretty impressive considering I only introduced it on Friday morning and we didn't get round to it at all yesterday because of the cows. I'm impressed, anyway.

So... yes, it all has me thinking all right. Lungeing is definitely not the answer because I think his opinion is pretty clear, and since I'm not much of a fan either, what's the point?

He's not dead keen on lining either, but I think we can work a bit more on that and if we keep it really simple, I may be able to get him on board again.

All this is an opportunity for me to learn, and I'm fairly well placed as it is to find the help I need to get us through this.

It's frustrating and throws up so much self-doubt and guilt just in case the thing that's going wrong for Max is me. Even if it was inadvertent, I can't help think that I must have done something, or not done something to bring us to this impasse.

But I have decided to stop fretting over how it happened, and concentrate on fixing it.

Fix it, we shall. Our foundation is solid so we've got a firm platform to spring from.