Heavy Head

Tony's rides lately have been just...blah... Every ride over the last week or so, he's just slowly gotten heavier and heavier in my hands. It's been too long since we've had a lesson with G, and I think we're just both playing into each other's bad habits. I'm letting him lean on me, and he's talking me into pulling on the reins too much.
 Last night, I tried to run through the lines that get thrown at me over and over again at every lesson, and that helped. I get into a cycle of holding his big head up, and there's no way my mere human arms can compete with such a heavy weight of a head.

See? It's huge...

The trick to Tony is being sharp and quick with rein aids, and float the contact in between. He actually does pretty well with a light contact, but he will start to lean into the reins, and all of a sudden, you've got 50 pounds of head in your hands. So you go in, get it done, and let go.

We have two lessons with Jessica Wisdom coming up this weekend. I desperately hope we don't embarrass ourselves...Tony's gotten a lot better, and he's usually really good when we travel (better than at home...I guess that's a good thing). I'm just hoping that after the weekend, our goals still feel realistic, and that we're on the right track. Fingers crossed!