Good arena ride

I had a very good ride with Cole in the arena, last night. I lounged him first, but I reduced his time from 20 minutes to only 12. I decided that he starts to act up when he gets bored, and maybe if I lounged him less, he would be better overall. I was right. By the way, I get bored of lounging, too.




I started the ride by going right down to the scary end of the arena and walking about over there for about 5 minutes. He behaved perfectly, and now I am so much more confident over there. I then did some trotting, but kept it on the safe side. Rome wasn’t built in a day. I think he was trying to figure out how to get clicked. He tried going faster, going with his head up, down and turned the wrong way. He threw in a half-hearted buck, too. When he dropped his head and took light contact with the bit, I clicked him. (I have been clicking him for this all the time on the lounge line.) I also clicked him when he went at a rational speed. After a bit, he did both at the same time—and he started to repeat it after I clicked and started him back up.



I am now starting to see how clicker works. At this stage of his training, Cruiser would just lug at the bit and ignore me as we trotted about. It took a long time before he started to understand lightness. Cole is guessing, and when he gets it, he is clearly rewarded so that he wants to repeat it.



I have a long weekend, so I probably won’t be back in the arena until Monday. I am looking forward to seeing if I can build on this.



Cruiser had a good ride, too.