RE: RC: Re: alone?

[Marlene Moss <MARLENE.MOSS@WCOM.COM>]

<<OK, so can anyone tell me what to do with an increasingly fit youngster
(read: can back up a very long way before deciding that forward is
better) upon whom this tactic has been used? My too smart little mare
had this game all figured out after the first two times I used this
trick and now is all too happy to go backwards when she won't go
forwards.>>

If backing up is too easy by itself, make her back up a hill or on rocks
where she has to really worry about where she puts her feet.  Be careful to
do either of the above in a safe manner as you don't want to hurt her or
make her afraid of hills or rocks - but make it so it is more difficult.

I don't have any rocks (ok, we dug up one in our arena) but I do have small
hills.  I put in a track around our big pasture that goes over all the
bigger hills.  I have a gelding that my husband now rides and he is quite
capable of trotting down hills that are too steep for me, so we had to teach
him that he couldn't trot down hills except on command.  What I did was make
him back up the distance he trotted down each hill.  It didn't take long for
him to figure it out - but we have to re-teach him every time he goes for a
week w/o being ridden - selective memory!

Good luck!

Marlene