Happy Birthday, Red (with Videos)!

Today is Red's 11th birthday, and I was up in Wisconsin to ride him, and Heather agreed to take some videos. &njsp;I was delighted with how well he's doing - there are still lots of things we're working on but a lot of the big things - the big braces, worry and inability to let a human make the decisions - are pretty much gone.  When he moves back to my new barn in June, I expect some of that will reappear, but I also expect it'll go away again pretty quickly.  Just within the last two weeks, he's clearly started to really let go of some of his old worries and bad learning, and just relax into human leadership.  Sometimes the bracing reappears when we ask something new of him, but it also goes away much more quickly than it used to - instead of "I have to do it this way or I'll die!" we get "should I do it this way or that way? - which would you prefer?".

Video one is a short sequence of trot to walk:

Video 2 is some big to short trot work, with a bit of bending around poles at the end:

Video 3 shows some walk to trot work - with some loose rein trot work in the middle:

  Video 4 is a very short sequence of backing:

Video 5 is some trot to canter to trot to canter work:

Video 6 shows some trot figure work before right lead canter - his harder lead - Heather and I think his left hind is still a bit weaker due to his EPM episode:

Video 7 shows a trot/canter right lead departure, and later a canter/trot downwards transition:

Video 8 shows walk to trot to longer trot:

Video 9 shows some more trot work:

Video 10 shows some left lead canter work - his easier lead:

Video 11 shows some right lead canter work, including several transitions:

Red is an extraordinary horse - I'm very fortunate to have him - he's taught me a lot already and I expect I have more to learn - happy birthday, Red!