Finally on board...

So finally! I managed to ride Eager last night. As always she was a star when I got on her back.  Still having a few issues with he schooling whip though when lunging first. So thought would try and resolve. Literally all she has to do is see it and shoots off like a bullet out of a gun!  In all fairness, with the limited turnout at the moment it doesn't take much.  But as I watched my nice flat school get churned up again, I thought we needed to try and deal with this.  

It's not that I feel any need to use the whip on Eager, but it helps mainly with direction.  Basically an extension of my arm. Also at some point I am going to need to use it with lateral work as again, an extension of my arm to get the quarters to move over etc. this won't be helped if every time she feels it she shoots forward.  She needs to learn, it doesn't always mean go.

So started just by running the whip over her and as soon as she stopped flinching and moving away I clicked and treated.  She responded so quickly that it really made me feel that I should get a bit better at clicker training.  Whilst I do try to click and reward at the right moment, I certainly dont clicker train. I then thought I would lunge again to discover the whip had actually split in two and not just separated. About time I got my butt on board anyway!  

So on i got... Dodging the craters and holes.  Walk, trot and bending to try and get her to use her right shoulder which again she really doesn't want to do.  So after 20 mins I go off and let her have a roll. She follows me absolutely everywhere, she is such a star but does make me staying in the arena to shut the gate a bit tricky :-) 

Now to keep up the momentum!