When I rode with Paul Roten Sunday he had two suggestions that I am working on. The first was for Magic to bend his neck laterally. The second was to work on Magic’s inclination to push me around when I am on the ground, particularly when he is nervous. The suggested solution is to keep my feet still and get Magic to move his feet. Another solution to the pushing is to control his tendency to move past me by stopping him with the bit. I worked with Magic on the ground yesterday. Today we did the ground work and I rode him for a short time.
Flexing his neck laterally seems to work good on the ground either with the rope halter or with the snaffle bit. When I am mounted and we are stopped, I ask for him to bend with the rein and place my hand holding the rein solidly on my leg. His reaction is to flex his neck and move his feet in a circle in the direction of the bend. He seems to give his head enough that there is no pressure on the rein as long as his feet are moving. When he finally stops circling he puts pressure on the rein. I hold my hand solid waiting for him to give. He may give but he starts moving his feet again. The desired behavior is to give to the rein and stand still. He is supposed to do both at the same time. Instead, when he gives to the rein, his feet are moving. When he stops his feet, he puts pressure on the rein. I have to be very patient and wait for the short instance where he does both and then give the rein. It is not so much an intended action on his part but an accidental coincidence when both happen. We are working on it. I can tell he gets impatient after this goes on for a long time but he is a good horse and does not explode.
Correcting his pushing seems to go pretty good. Of course it is very helpful that he does not do it much when we are here at home. So I am putting more effort into having him stand untied and stationary while I groom and tack up.
We are being very deliberate with these exercises. We don’t do much else and the session is short. I hopped off in the pasture and removed the saddle and bridle. Kind of like a reward. He took off and cantered into the barn. Well, maybe he did enjoy the release.