Well, while I still feel like Zim and I are in the "who the f- are you" phase of buying a new horse. I also feel like our rides have progressed a bit from "where are all the buttons?" to "Lets learn something".
Zim is smart. Probably smarter than most of the horses I am used too. He learns something and it seems to stay relatively fresh in his brain. He also does NOT like to be corrected. Honestly, he rides a bit like my mares, you ask, you ask, but you don't tell.
Yesterday I had a fantastic ride. I started out on a long rein, working mostly on impulsion and energy over his back. Then spent maybe 10 minutes just trotting on a looseish rein, working on getting him to relax and give me a slow, long and graceful trot. He will do it for a moment, then tense and speed up, which causes him to get super crooked and choppy. So we did lots of this, me half-halting and asking him to relax, him relaxing then speeding back up. He is going to have such a nice trot when he learns to relax and find a bit more rythm.
After working on that for a while (my legs were getting tired from posting....ugh I am so out of shape!), I collected him up and started asking him for the bend. I started to left (his good side - because he can fall on the right rein). On the straight I would ask him to tip his nose to the outside, and lift his shoulder up and to the inside. He can only give me maybe a half step, but opposed to the temper tantrum he threw the day before, its progress.
To the left, he tried to run out and ignore me, but after correcting him a few times he managed to give me a decent try to the right. I praised him profusely (which he loves - I swear he is a bit insecure and needs pats all the time). We had 1 second flashes where he would stay in my outside rein (to the right), and then fall back into the right rein. Once he is lifting he shoulder a bit more consistently, I think some spiral in-out will really help him stay in that outside rein and help with the crookedness.
Tracking one direction (I think to the left) he feels super crooked and a little off (not lame, just choppy - I think as a result of the crookedness). So thats a priority.
Broke up a lot of the bending at the walk to do long rein trots. I'm not strong enough to really hold myself in a way that would make working on bending effective right now, so I don't want to confuse him more. I'm close, and I feel stronger, but I just don't want to screw up what I am doing at a walk.
Ended the ride with a canter each direction. God, I fall in love with that horses canter. It makes my hips hurt a bit because its so big, but its just so collected, cadenced and light. If I can get that at the trot, I will have success.
We ended the ride (while I am rubbing his neck and telling him what a superstar he is), with a fantastic teleport. What does he spook at? The pile of poles/jump standards outside the arena. *sigh*. I worry a bit he won't be brave enough to jump and hope this is just a phase.
I think I'll start placing poles in the arena and making him walk/trot over them during our rides.
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