Where to start?!?!

So starting my experiment this morning, practiced some of Klaus's techniques with leading, taking Roger and Smokey to the back yard and then got Mac out for his ride and got on....

Here's where it turned exciting from an energy perspective anyway. The way to test anything is with as little body interference as possible right? So long rein and no leg and off we went.....! Well that didn't work, little sod kept wanting to zip off in a different direction and wasn't even paying attention to my "pick a spot and ride to it" that he'd been a star at, so haul him straight again, haul him straight again, haul him straight again and then pick a part of the paddock to ride in..... so here I am on a circle and I get into concentrating on him and what we are doing. Reins NO contact and no leg, drop the energy for a 1/2 halt, drop it further for a full halt, lift the energy for a walk, lift it for a trot, drop it for a walk, lift, drop, 1/2 halt, lift, forward trot, lift, lift lift canter, steer on the circle just looking, drop energy, 1/2 halt, trot.... on and on we went! Got some lovely long and low in there, got a tiny bit of "lift" of the front end but he wasn't round and collected so it really didn't count in "dressage" terms LOL, but he tried to respond to what I was asking! It was actually very exciting, particularly since this horse was my chronic fear bolter and for the first 2 yrs I owned him we pretty much rode with 2 inch long reins! LOL.

So, more experimenting with that to follow and to work on that roundness and collection without the reins.....

Then this afternoon was Smokey's turn. Knowing how to halt and increase speed without the rein and leg I thought I'd try it on Smokey, heck I'm lazy, if I can teach him to go without leg it makes it that much easier for me!!!!

Worked well, on lead out past the horses (and by now it's blowing quite well) practice a halt, drop the energy, bang, stopped. Lift the energy, off we go.... take the lead off and we walk around the paddock. As we're going I see a big patch of bare dirt that looks like it should have a rabbit hole on one end of it so I set Pete to checking it out and circle around him. Marcus catches us up and I circles around both of them. Tell Pete to get the camera out while we there and hey presto a magic video appears hehehe. Is it just me excited by a wee video of Smokey walking around in a circle????!!! LOL He was a pro with the halt and walk on but kept wanting to duck back out towards the other horses and wasn't such a pro with the "pick a spot and ride to it" thing but hey it was day one!

So no vid of Mac unfortunately, but here is Smokey :) (I might get tired of going on about him one day hehehe and be able to drop those stirrups soon! LOL)