Remember the Lessons Velvet Taught You, Susan

Why did Velvet canter every time I asked her to leg yield at a lesser gait.  We were walking, I asked her to leg yield and she tried to canter.  We were in the next gait up, I asked her to leg yield and she tried to canter.  Then I realized I was asking her to leg yield with force in my legs.  I remembered that I thought about the difference between a cue and asking for a faster gait.

I’ve been thinking the same thing about Cisco lately.  How am I cueing him to leg yield and how do I cue him to canter.  It seems to me that I’m doing the same thing for both of those tasks and we are having a problem with it.

Today, I remembered that Velvet had already taught me the answer.  The answer is heels.  Velvet taught me that I should touch her with my heel to leg yield.  She tried to teach me to squeeze with both legs with my left or right heal in the correct position to ask for the left or right lead.

I also figured out today that when I am asking Cisco to keep fox trotting instead of slowing down, I should bend both knees and ask him to keep going with a gentle squeeze.  My goodness, it worked today.  We stopped breaking gait when I started bending my knees. and squeezing.

There are a few people that will understand this mumbo jumbo.