Q1 Review

While goals are canceled for the time being, I still think it's worthwhile to take a holistic look at what's changed since January.

We started the year with Fuego being lame. It definitely didn't set the tone for us moving forward, and once he had his shoe back on, he was fine. Speaking of his feet, they're doing great! He was switched to an aluminum shoe and had some mud put over the front of his feet to hold it on better. The tears grew out a little slow, but his feet are solid, and *knocks on wood* he hasn't pulled a shoe in a while.

Something else he hasn't done in a while (at least with me) is break a cross tie. He has also graduated back to being in the wash rack instead of hosing him off while hand grazing. He walks in with gusto and stands all the way at the front to do a thorough investigation of the whole setup. He still isn't confident about exiting and can get antsy if he's there for too long, but he isn't breaking anything. He does his best to do what I ask, and that makes me happy.

He's also becoming weridly reliable off the cross ties.
He stands patiently after rides while I untack. It's a major convenience.

We actually had an interesting incident this past weekend. I was waiting for Trainer T to return to the barn for my lesson, but Agave had to come in from the pasture, and he shares a stall with Fuego. Because of this, I just took Fuego out and had him on the crossties for a while. The horses came back from the show in two different trailers about half an hour apart. The first trailer was M's, which Fuego has seen before while on the cross ties. The first time that happened, M remarked how well Fuego was doing despite the sights and sounds. This time around, same thing. He definitely perked up at first but settled down after a while. He did give Vali - his pasture mate - the cutest little nicker as she was unloading. When Trainer T arrived with her trailer, whole different story. He was much more upset and did the horse version of a downward dog, which, um, I've never seen before, idk about y'all. I wish I had a picture because he just looked weird. It looked like he was trying to figure out whether to run or not. He went down into the movement two or three times, and jumped a bit, but he never backed away. No pressure on the cross ties, no pulling. He looked at it and obviously felt emotional but stood his ground and processed the whole situation. Obviously I'm not a behavioral expert with horses, but even though he was scared, downward-facing horse is a much more measured response than immediately pulling back and running.

Overall, I am happy with his demeanor. He's more confident on the ground, he comes with a fantastic work ethic in the arena, he's getting the left lead consistently, and we have less sideways jumping. For him, rushing fences is actually a good sign compared to him going sideways or avoiding the fences. Having my hands ripped open sucks, but if he's game, then I'm game.

I love this shot so much because it illustrates how much he simply does not care about where his front legs go

Something I had to adjust recently is my response to his head shaking/flinging. At first, I would just soften my hands since I know how soft his mouth is. However, this isn't really the right approach because his behavior isn't only to my hands, it's to everything being asked of him. So yeah, softening my hands kind of helps, but I'm trying to remind myself to soften everything instead. And it's a great reminder to do a body check-in. Are my heels are down? Is my leg nagging? Is my knee pinching? Tail bone tucked? Core engaged?

I like to micro manage. He likes for me to be off his case. It's a balance.

Personal space? Work in progress . . .