Thanks NatrlHorse image. It has been going better than anticipated. I am ashamed to say that for the past year, Justin's intelligence was regularly questioned. Justin is a bit like an ADD child that usually does not pay any attention but when he does, it is very intense. The more thinking exercises he does, the more focused he is becoming.

There have been four rides since the last report (behind already so these are short)
Ride 11- First set back- same program but I failed to recognize when he stopped paying attention to me and he reverted back to how he was on a much earlier ride (like ride 2 or 3). Cantering was subsequently forward, momentum building, out of control. I had forgotten how scary it was already. Had to stop cantering before he was relaxed again and worked on trotting/walking/stopping and lateral moves. Justin benefits greatly from lateral work- shoulders in, shoulders out, counter bending at a trot, pivots on the forehand and hindquarters. We are trying haunches in and out, at a walk, but that is an exercise I sort of am not good at.

Ride 12- Took Justin to a friends house, with a nice arena set up for trail class (ground poles, bridges, gates, lopeover logs, cones). Despite the bad ride 11, this ride went great! In particular, we were able to, at a relaxed trot, weave through a series of seven cones set up about 3 feet apart from each other. Cantering was conservative- back to lots of five strides, stops, rollback, depart on opposite lead.

Ride 13- Back to friends house. Similar to ride 12 but incorporated steering at a canter around various obstacles. He was remarkable on task, thinking well. The most notable improvement was that, when a canter departure was asked for, I could feel him take the time to adjust his own weight to pick up the lead I was asking for.


Ride 14. Justin is beginning to really regulate his own speed. Yesterday, we went on a trail ride to feed the neighbors dog. We trotted (w/o contact of course) most of the way. There were several times where he started building momentum but before I had to correct him, he corrected himself and checked back down to a nice, easygoing working trot.

Last Edited By: reditoride Aug 6 09 1:28 PM. Edited 1 times.