Breaking it down for the horse -- Mixer's right lead.

So my very favorite-est horse (and I only feel comfortable writing this because I'm pretty sure my beloved herd does not read my blog), my 6 yr old home bred Paint/Quarter cross, Mixer, and I are currently on a little learning journey. Mostly -- historically, anyway -- I haven't been one for doing much arena work since my days riding hunt seat as a teenager. And Mixer fairly early on had expressed his enthusiasm for exploring -- he was bred to be my trail horse, and he definitely excels as such. He will literally gravitate to new trails he has not been on yet, and unlike his predecessor, Johnny No Spots, Mixer actually -- slows down -- when he realizes we are heading back home. But it was time to advance his education, and I thought it would be fun to see him dressed up in dressage attire, plus we had never settled this right lead thing, so off we trotted to the arena.

I have to say -- boy is he adorable in his new outfit. Well, okay; he's adorable to begin with. But seriously. He is the freakin' bees knees in tux and tails.

He absolutely thoroughly enjoyed his first dressage "lesson". I swear. Not being one to force a new vocation on my horses, I gave him a couple of opportunities to choose the arena or not in the week following his first lesson; mind you, he had studiously avoided the arena up until this point, and even expressed a STRONG disdain for anything involving a roundpen about 3 rides under saddle. He is that sort of horse...I don't believe in drilling my horses, and I'm very careful not to, so I'm pretty certain it wasn't that I bored him to tears in either venue. Mixer is just very sure of himself. If he is ready to move on, he says so. And he is very often quite right.

So we set about re-establishing this thing called BEND, which he had learned the rudimentary elements of in his earliest days under saddle. We worked on cadence. We started "talking" about lateral movement. And we REALLY started discussing the right lead.

Now, it's not that I didn't think leads were important. But honestly, I wasn't entirely sure he COULD pick up a right lead with my weight on his back. My brief sojourn into the breeding shed panned out fabulously in regards to temperament (which was my number one criteria), and color (which I really gave not a rat's ass about), and pretty good, but not completely spectacular in the conformation area. All bias aside: he is actually very nicely put together: lovely neck, nice shoulder, back not too long, nice hip without being a "baby got back" QH type. His hocks are better than adequate from any angle. Good pasterns. Flat knees, not back nor over. Big feet (good, in my book!). Good chest. But gosh darn it, in spite of a beautifully straight legged daddy, he got momma's reeeeeallly turned out left front foot. *Sigh*. And while he canters all over the pasture, changing leads fluidly, he refused to pick up the right lead in the round pen at liberty, or under saddle. I just had a niggling feeling that maybe it was easier on the joints in that left front leg to be the lead, instead of the support. But we had to try.

In the past, I have used all of the common methods to get proper leads; one that always worked well was putting the horse over a cavalleti placed just before a corner. I tried that a couple of times with this horse; he would get the lead with the cavaletti, but never without it. So somewhere there was something missing. Bend was surely part of it, but there were still plenty of times when he was supple and curved around my inside leg, but STILL took the left lead. Clockwise counter-canter will not be a problem for this horse!

After about four more sessions, the right lead was still elusive at best. And then it dawned on me. The back feet -- the hip. That was the missing variable. After all, the lead starts with the outside hind. We went back to kindergarten -- pick up a rein, ask for a bend in the neck and disengage the hindquarters. I tried it first with my right rein, moving his hip to the left. No problem. Step across with the inside hind, step over with the outside. Then I tried the left rein, ask for a bend, and step the hindquarters across. Well, I'll be darned. He had a tough time with that. Couldn't get his hip up under himself and step across. No wonder the right lead wasn't available to me. I gave it another shot, hung in there and waited for those back feet to find their mark. He finally got it -- step across, step out.

I went back out on my circle to the right. Circled at the walk, very supple, and then asked for the right lead canter. And there it was.

It's still not polished -- most days I need to do the hindquarters stepping across exercise first -- and when I do, the right lead is at my disposal! Breaking it down into its fundamental pieces set us up for success.