Update on Marie's Lesson - Saturday Morning

To recap, Marie was having problems getting Pepper into a lope, so she rode Bear to learn how to do it. Once she learned the proper procedure on Bear, who is easier to get into a lope, Marie had to ride Pepper for her lesson on Saturday and get him successfully into the lope, applying proper leg aids.

So how did it go? Well...ultimately she did fantastic! However, for the first 12 tries she got him to lope after taking approximately 5 to 8 walks / trots. This was an improvement over the last time she rode Pepper, since she barely got him into 2 steps at the lope when he immediately broke down to a trot, walk, or whatever he wanted to do, not what Marie wanted him to do. So yesterday, after Frank got stern with her, she got him to go directly into the lope from both a walk and a trot. SUCCESS! She discovered she had not been giving him leg cues with a strong enough spur...she was tickling him and he was laughing at her! So, the majority of Marie's next lesson will be spent reinforcing the queues given to send Pepper into a lope immediately when asked from a walk or trot.

It's great when things go as planned!