Progress with Hot Cocoa

It happens with all the most challenging horses, and I don't know why. You feel it. You can be in the house thinking about something completely different, but suddenly you feel it and you know. This is the time. And if you act, right then, you can make surprising progress, push past some logjam in the training, and emerge from the tangle free and ready to go forward.

I felt it today with Cocoa. Between checking for messages on my phone and getting something to eat, I felt it. Now. Right now.

So I went out and got Cocoa, brushed him, saddled him, and bridled him. Then I led him over to the fence (outside the ring), got onto the fence, and began fussing over him, scratching his neck, rattling the saddle--basically desensitizing him to me being above his head. Each new step in this long process was tense for him, followed by relaxation. He was very interested in the bridle, and chewed it a lot. That was a good thing. It kept his mind off what I was doing to his back.

He danced away from me many times, but I pulled him back in and praised him when he got into position. He responds very well to praise. After just 10 minutes of this, he would line himself up next to me on the fence and tolerate me shaking the saddle and scratching his neck from above on both sides. That's pretty good.

Then I decided to put my leg across the saddle--not to get on, but just to have him experience me being on both sides of him. His reaction was a violent surge backwards, stiff-legged and snorting. He pulled back against the bridle and then relaxed slightly when I scolded him and asked him to line up again. He did line up (I thought he would refuse, but he didn't), and I tried the leg over thing again. He was stock still, no longer chewing on his bit, but focused completely on me and on what I was doing. But he held still. He stayed right up against the fence while I put my leg over the saddle again, and this time he didn't spook. He stood still. I pounded my foot up and down on his saddle, rattled it with my hand while leaving my leg on it--even stood up a bit higher and leaned more on that leg--and though he was tense and watchful, he did as I asked him to do and stood still.

Bring out the champagne--this is amazing progress for that horse. And wow is he ever going to be a good riding horse!