When I re-started riding Merlin 6 weeks ago Shannon warned me that Merlin would not move for anybody.  I told her I had thought over what I had done earlier and that I had decided that I had to change the way I rode Merlin, and that the BIG change was that I was willing to wait for Merlin to move from simple and light driving aids.  I also told her that I was prepared to ride him 5 times before I gave up on waiting for movement.  If you have been reading my blogs you know that Merlin has moved each time I rode him, not promptly mind you, but he did consent to move.

     So I approached my fifth ride today with a very, very positive frame of mind about Merlin moving.  Merlin however had other ideas.  We did our usual thing of following Shannon through the gate, Merlin pivoting so she could close the gate, then following Shannon until I stopped him in the middle of the ring.  I sat still on Merlin, and today my nerves were working better since I could feel the movements of his ribs as he breathed, so I finally got to synchronize my breathing with Merlin’s.  It did not seem to make any positive difference with Merlin at all.  As we stood there Merlin looked all around, Wayne, Shannon’s husband, was down in the woods putting up a new fence, providing a lot of entertainment.  Then Merlin started keeping an eye on his new girlfriend, Magic.  Finally Merlin sighed, I did my escalation of the driving aids and Merlin kept on standing.  So I did some rider exercises, reaching far forward and then as far back as I could go while keeping my seat evenly in the saddle, then I tried to touch my opposite toes without moving my seat bones.

     After I ended my stretches I decided to do something different with my driving aids, maybe if I counted out 10 seconds it would give Merlin more of a chance to obey.  So after Merlin’s next sigh I said WALK, and I could tell that at the end of 4 seconds Merlin was expecting (and planning to resist) my leg aid but I waited the full 10 seconds before applying my legs, then another 10 seconds before lightly applying my spurs.  It did not do any good, Merlin seemed to feel that the aids were no longer connected to each other.  So we stood some more while Merlin regally surveyed his kingdom.  As we waited I talked with Shannon about the training discussions last week on Barnmice.  Finally Merlin sighed again, I repeated my driving aids escalation  waiting just 4 seconds between the aids, and Merlin moved.

     Merlin made me wait FIFTEEN MINUTES before consenting to move, three times longer than before.

     But once he got moving he let me guide him away from Shannon, and I got him to walk at the arena fence for around a quarter of the ring before I told him to go to Shannon.  The next time he consented to move (after a few minutes) he again let me move him away from Shannon, and this time I stopped him at the fence.  He balked a few times when I gave him a turning aid he did not want to obey, and if I gave him a driving aid (with loose reins) he started backing up, at least he stopped backing up after one step when I went passive.  Then he walked some more and I got to “parallel park” him around six feet away from Shannon instead of letting him go up and to bury his head in her arms.  He got praised to the skies for that!  Then, for a finale, Shannon walked at the fence and I got Merlin to go several feet to the inside of her instead of just behind her.  I figured that was good enough and dismounted.

     Mia had an adventure this week.  One of Debbie’s students has been trying out all of Debbie’s lessons horses and asked to ride her.  Mia, still recovering from her minor stifle problem did her best, but over the trotting poles Mia broke into a canter, and at the end of the trotting poles quickly turned right when she was supposed to turn left, heading to the exit of the ring.  The little girl fell off into the deep sand of Debbie’s ring.  Did Mia immediately run to the gate?  No!  Mia stopped immediately and stood there, looking back at the little girl asking her “What are you doing down there?” and remained standing still as the girl got up and remounted.  No trauma, the girl did not get scared, the girl’s mother did not get scared, and I am SO PROUD of Mia for stopping right away and waiting.  She was a good girl!

Have a great ride!

Jackie Cochran