Oh, that might be the problem!

The past two weeks or so Ive been incredibly frustrated when riding Milo. His focus has been on everything else but me, theres limited space in the arena cause there are constantly people riding and getting lessons, so I cannot utilize the arena, plus I havent been able to get Milo out of his stall enough lately so hes a big built-up bundle of energy. So nearly every ride has been frustrating, and not getting any sort of training done, so I get off before things get too worse; which isnt getting all of his built up energy out.

But it suddenly dawned on me today - Ive been allowing my horse to not keep his focus on me in all of our other daily happenings; leading, grooming, tacking up etc. Why havent I realized this before? Since July 07 Ive been letting him look at things, be goofy and disrespective, and basically not have to focus on me. I think its because he was a new horse, hes usually such a sweetie, and hey he was still kinda a baby, so I think I let him get away with things I dont let other horses get away with. As my trainer Cathy pointed out to me one day: I baby him, cause he is my baby. Im not firm enough with him and let him get away from things. Not purposefully, but I have been.

So, last night I started a new riding regime. Ive put all the reining training and conditioning on the back burner, and what Ive been doing is just using the time I ride as a time to keep his focus on me. If an ear shoots to something else (like it always does in the "scary side" of the arena, I make him focus on me again; changing directions, disengaging, one rein stop, etc. Once I can get a nice solid amount of time with him really listening to me (this may be only about 4 or 5 steps), I stop him and let him sit a while, rub him and tell him hes a good boy. Than we start again. And once he gives me a really good amount of time, say walking by the scary area but keeping ears on me, I get off and we are done. It seemed to work pretty good last night, and today.

I also incorporated more listening during basic ground activities. He had to be leading with me calmly and without staring at everything else around him, he needed to quietly stand in the cross ties, not staring at all the people and other horses in the barn, etc. So I hope this works. It seems this is a good hole in his training, and should hopefully make everything else fall into place. I only wish I noticed this two years ago!