It felt like Christmas for me today! My first lesson on Teddy and it was at home in our front paddock. I learned so much about myself and Teddy that we have already improved out of sight. I couldn't be happier.
It appears the head tossing is all about Teddy being a tense/nervous horse. I know he is a uptight boy but now I know how to reassure him while riding. As I suspected I was contributing to the problem with my methods but now I have some strategies to work on to get us through this, at least to a better degree than we are now. I don't expect miracles and that we will be trail riding off into the sunset any time soon, or even ever! But I know we will get better and better.
It will be slow steps but they're all steps in the right direction.
We didn't canter today, but we spent over half our time just getting him comfortable at a walk so he didn't head toss and then we worked him in trot. I was mainly trotting around in a circle and would do as many as I could without restricting him but keeping the reins in the correct position at the same time. I'm a bit grabby and I'll be working on fixing that. I am a fair way from perfecting this but I can see what a marked difference it is making already.
After the lesson Kim rode him and kept him more consistent at a trot then I could but he was in the same place in his head. I did notice a few moments where he was completely at ease and then for reasons only Teddy would know he tensed up again. When I say tense up I don't mean he misbehaved or I felt like he was going to bolt off or anything. It's just an aura he has about him that projects as "I'm not totally comfortable about this." By the time I got off him he had taken about a 180 turn toward the positive. Then when Kim rode him he probably dropped back to 90 at the very start before getting back to 180 again at the end. Just the difference in rider was enough to cause him tension.
I was very proud of Teddy today and hope that we can continue with lessons together as much as possible. He earnt his nudie run today!
Go Team Teddy!
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