Practice What Your Bad At

Today it was Freestyle (where did that come from?).
Who would have thought Freestyle would come up after not being seen for a while and explode!? 8-O
Let me clarify...
We haven't been doing much freestyle because... well I don't know why... I think I was ignoring it. Well I'm diving right back in! I went out this afternoon after talking with Keri on the phone and thought that I could ride. I did. It went ok. My sister brought the video camera out and thought that if he was in a good mood, which he was, we could film my freestyle audition. Well, that didn't work. We did do most of the compulsories, but not very good quality. It reminds me of Norma's post; carrying out a task, but not looking at the intent. Our sideways was terrible, his back was also terrible and he was just......... No, wait, it was me! I was a bit tense because of the camera and I was B-O-R-I-N-G! He was a mild LBE, he wanted to play! But me... ha! I was a little LBI/RBI and I wanted to do these small, little refined tasks. He wanted to go cantering around the arena and do flying lead changes and transitions and just have fun. GOLLY!
I have a lot to learn! So! I'm back where I thought I was last month, gaining enough confidence and enough trust in him to do those things. To do what Linda does with Allure! I NEED to stop treating him like a LBI like he is in the summer, and treat him like a LBE which he is in the winter! AH! BFO!!!
You all can hold me accountable for this:
Lea Henze hearby states that she will not be a boring human during freestyle and will work as hard as she can on becoming a more provocative and passive and fun and relaxed human being. No more boring Level 2 stuff. He wants a challenge.

So... Now that that paragraph is taken care of, lets go to something that he did AMAZING with!

This morning we played at liberty and he was fantastic! First I had him on the 45 foot line and we did a few things to get his mind on me. Then the next stage, I took the 45 off and then put it around his neck. He did awesome with that too. Only a few times he would leave, but I would just reel him back in. I had another BFO today. Jess, the girl who used to own him, used to chase him around at liberty and called it 'lunging'. Well that's what he thinks we're going to do! Even after 2 years he still reverts back to that. Anywho, he did really good with the rope around his neck, so I just took it off and walked away and coiled it up. He followed me and then once the coils were all assorted, I put me savvy string up, over his back and we played stick to me. Now this was awesome! He used to go running off in a "You can't catch me!" way. So I didn't push it into a trot, a walk was enough. Then we played the sideways game, and he was so connected. Twice he left, but he came right back and we tried again. I think he did it twice both ways. BIG IMPROVEMENT! He used to just run off! And who knows, he might go back to it, but for right now, I'll focus on the good. Squeeze was a bit of a challenge for him today. Usually it isn't, but oh well! Deal with the horse that shows up! So we played with that for a bit and he finally got it. Yay! Circling was also great. He did two laps each way at the trot and he came back in willingly. Then we ended it there and I was so happy!

Well thanks for reading this long post! I needed to think my way through my brain and come out the other end!

Savvy on!

Lea & Eddie