I was actually around this weekend so I made it out to the barn on Sunday. Unfortunately I got there after J&J left for town with the clydes. So it was just me and Cody left to our own devices. It was warm but I decided it was time for another trip down the road alone. We will conquor this riding alone thing someday. I still need longer straps for Cody's breast collar, I tried it on him again and it's just too short but the new pad seems to help the slipping issue. With our boots on and a lead rope with a popper at my disposal we crawled down the driveway. Then we crawled down the road. We had a few stops on the way but only had to get popped with the lead rope once. Might be something I should do early on while we're still near the barn (less chance of a freak out and more chance for establishing some sort of alpha position in our relationship). We stopped when cars drove by but we did not spin around and bolt for home. I will remember treats next time. Perhaps cody needs some clicker training! Anyway we made it further than ever before (this summer). Almost all the way down to the next block. I'd say we had one minor spaz attack that was easily curtailed. When he calmed down we turned around. When he got amped to be facing home, we went away from the barn again and tried a second time. I'll take a nice brisk walk but I won't take a spazzy vertical trot, we don't run home, mister.
Going home should equal work so we did some serpentines. The first several were very spazzy "OMG are we turning around again I wanna go home now!" but once he figured out we were just bending then he settled in. I tried a bit of leg yeilding as well but without an audience it's hard to tell if he's crossing over or not, my guess is not. We went back to the serpentines and then tried some circles. Circles to the right were okay. Circles to the left looked like half circles with the sharp turn happening when we weren't facing the barn. Left is a real problem for Cody and it shows up a lot when he's freaking out. Left = freak out more. When we got near the drive way we trotted ... right past the driveway much to Cody's dismay. But as he calmly kept going with only a bit of encouragement we stopped and I got off and we walked the rest of the way home.
While I was riding I noticed Cody would get a weird hitch in his back end. Back left to be exact. Upon furthur investigation on the ground it seemed like he wasn't quite picking that foot up far enough and as we'd cross the crown of the road that toe would drag causing a bit of a catch/stumble. So Mr Cody might have to work on some ground poles as well. You'd think with the number of things I keep coming up with to work on I'd be busy out there all the time. But it's hard to get motivated and not just play around. I'm going to stop at the tack shop on the way home tonight and see if the have one of those Rider's Rasps. Cody has some serious chips going already and Tricia has expressed great love for the rasp so I think it's time to give it a whirl.
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