And today's show was brought to you by ...

... Principle #2 and Human Responsibility #4.

We were playing with some obstacles tonight in preparation for Sunday's Charity Treasure Hunt & Obstacle Course in aid of the Brook Hospital.

Harley and I had a couple of misunderstandings, the first of which was that every time I lifted the rein he backed up. Great Back-up! you say, but it wasn't what I thought I was asking for and when you're trying to do fine, little movements, like negotiating the S-Bend,that's not what you want. The key to it was Principle #2 - Make and Teach No Assumptions. I had inadvertently taught him that and he assumed that was what I wanted. I had also assumed that because he'd backed up just from my seat before that he had learned it and so would this time. Once I'd isolated backing up from my seat and played friendly game with the rein, we were back on track. Or should I say back-up on track.

The second misunderstanding involved some bending poles. Once again he'd done it fine before, so I assumed he'd be fine this time. He wasn't. I ended up assuming that I needed to steer him around each of the bending poles with eyes-bellybutton-legs-rein. Max pointed out to me that firstly I was unbalancing him (Human Responsibility #3 - Develop an Independent Seat) and secondly I wasn't focussing on the barrel at the end of the bending poles. So applying Human Responsibility #4 - Use the Natural Power of Focus, I focussed on the barrel and suddenly it became easy and I could use really small movements.

It's fun having a purpose, but you don't get anywhere if you don't keep to your principles.

BTW - Harley's FTR was brilliant tonight, even with all those distractions.