Just a quick update here, as I have not posted in quite some time. I was working with Rajmani all these days, but he had a three-day rest in-between as I got my Covid shot and was pretty gone for some time. After three days, I decided to take him for his third independent ride outside and without any preparation, just saddled him and we went. So, you can see how much I came to trust him and how well-behaved he is. Of course, he is out on the farm during the day with the herd, so he has enough exercise on a daily base, even when I don’t work with him.
We also did some more ground work and I started doing Equi Classic work with him. This is basically working him with a pair of reins on the Cavesson on the circle with transitions and shoulder in and counter shoulder in. He is doing okay, even though I think he prefers the riding as he tends to get a bit naughty when I work with him on the ground.
And I introduced him to my training mountain. That is one of the steepest hills around our farm with a path leading straight up. It is super steep and super long. Of course, Rajmani came along as hand horse and we took it slowly with a break in the middle. It is the perfect place to work on the muscles of the hindquarters as the horses have to work hard and push with their hind in order to climb up. The horses learn how to use their hind quarters to push themselves up. So far, I have only taken him the other way round, descending which is difficult enough. Rajmani is doing extremely well and I am happy with his progress.
For now we concentrate on refining the aids and slowly growing his muscles. Bit by bit I want to start riding him outside alone and introduce the trot. That will be our work for the coming weeks under the saddle.
On the ground we have worked on the lunge and with short reins. Now it is time to get him used to the long reins and the driving from the ground. Also we will need to work more on his lateral movements, which are still not very good.