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encounter. Translate that to trail riding: How DO you ride through that spook if your horse isn’t wrapped around your leg?
A very easy way to begin this exercise for engagement, and for safety purposes, is to ask the horse to stand its shoulder up, or, said another way, to hollow its shoulder away from you. I calmly, and ever-so-gently, stepped towards the circling horse, and reached out with the end of my lunge line to touch Thunder’s shoulder, asking, “Would you mind, please, moving your shoulder away from me?”
His response was memorable. All I can say is, “…and feet flew.” The dog was off the porch, so to speak, with my stormy, new-found friend who obviously had reached his limits—hind feet were in the rafters.
Thunder rolled around me, alternating between the boldest of trots, and dancing a handstand with his hind legs waving toward me. Luckily, I was out of harm’s way, as his feet were aimed over my head. With each revolution, I could see the spectators all sit way back in their seats. “Where had this horse come from,” their faces mirrored.
The truth is, Thunder was an imposter. On the surface, he was a sharp, bright chestnut, with an older, calm and grandfatherly demeanor. The kind of horse your grandkids ride. But lurking below the skin his truer color had emerged—a brighter shade of GREEN. This horse had been there the whole time, reactive and unschooled.
What does all this have to with obstacles?
It goes back to the question I asked earlier. What do you do to warm up your horse before you ride?
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What do you do to warm up your horse before you ride? Tight muscles produce negative reactions.
Horses do not naturally bend on the circle, they lean in because they don’t know how to bring their inside hind forward
Photo by Aponi
Photo by Aponi