Houston, we have - STEERING!!

Just a quickie brag. Quattro now has TOTAL steering when ground-driving. God, I love smart horses soooooooooo much; they learn SO fast. We haven't ground-driven since my last post; I've been alternating between that and lungeing with full tack. So this was basically ground-driving lesson No. 2, and he has got it going ON! The Western folks have got poles up in the indoor for pole-bending, and as our piece de resistance at the end of the session, we ground drove the whole pole bending pattern.

Next thing we have to work on is brakes. :-P He is far less good at "whoa/stand" (wants to run backwards and face me... baby greenie stuff...), but for right now, I care more about emphasizing the forward motion. I may have to use a stronger bit to get a good "whoa"; he's still in his Happy Mouth baby bit. I want to keep him in that until the steering is totally trustworthy, which probably is going to take a few more lessons.

AND I think I've solved the whip problem, at least temporarily: instead of a long driving whip, tonight I carried a plain old short crop. That worked; if he loses forward momentum and wants to back up, all I really have to do is shake it at him and he heads right on forward again. I'm thinking I'll have to gradually lengthen the whips I use as the summer progresses; but he should be fine eventually.

AND he let me play with his ears over dinner, AND he let me pick up all four feet and hold them over dessert. Many cookies were given, and the old War Admiral is doing the victory dance tonight!

The adventure continues.