Day 181

Oh Harry. I don't know what I'm going to do with him.

I only rode him today and we worked for a longgggg time. We started out just doing some circle-work and some serpentines around different parts of the arena. I was trying to get him to work off of my leg and he was getting it, slowly but surely. His corto was great, but we've had better. Then we start working on the largo and all he's doing is pacing. He's completely out of gait 90% of the time. I try shuffling my reins to regroup him -- doesn't work. I try pushing him back and forth in rhythm with my legs -- doesn't work. I try gently pulling his head to the side every couple of steps to regroup -- doesn't work. I try stopping and starting, slowing down the gait, flexing...nothing is working. I have no idea how to get him into rhythm when he starts going faster. He seems to completely overwhelm and lose it.

At least we worked on going on the rail straight. We got that down great after a couple rides around. But it's that darn gait that's going to get us. My mom's been working on it since August, but I can't tell any improvement. All we know is that he can't go very fast in the largo otherwise he loses it. So where are we supposed to go from here? Are we supposed to work on collecting and shortening his corto even more, or are we supposed to try and get him to relax and lengthen into his largo? Either way, we need a bigger difference in speed than we have right now.