Bo's Happy Ride

This is consistently my view from on top of Bo.  I'm still riding him in the bareback pad because saddle re-fitting doesn't happen until tomorrow.  Generally his ears are forward and he's lengthened out his neck to a more relaxed posture.  Tacking up is a little complicated for now, but it's getting better.  Since Bo has so many negative associations with saddling from years of ill-fitting equipment, he does a pretty impressive dragon imitation.  Historically, he will pin his ears and bite the air, or me, when he sees the saddle, pad and girth approaching.  I've had pretty good success with changing this reaction by pairing the equipment with treats so he thinks saddling is a good thing.  However, the timing of the treats is quite precise, because I want him to associate the treats with the saddling process, NOT with his biting.  So goodies are only dispensed when he has his ears pricked forward towards me and the saddle.  It requires close attention to his posture and demeanor, and if there's any doubt about whether he's going to think the treat was a reward for being a dragon I don't give it.  Intermittent reward is a powerful motivator, so it's better to skip a goodie rather than accidentally give him a treat for being aggressive.  This is one of the reasons I'm glad his owner was willing to leave him here for me to work with, I wouldn't want her to have to fine-tune this behavior herself and risk reinforcing the biting.  But something had to be done to change his associations with tack.

He now starts his rides pretty comfortably, and though his trotting begins a little short-strided, once he realizes that the tack doesn't hurt he actually stretches his back, lowers his head, and takes longer slower strides instead of his habitual "sewing machine" trot.  Mostly I'm excited about the relaxed head and floppy forwards ears. 

Bo is attentive to what is going on around us, here I think he's greeting a client who pulled up and parked her car on the other side of the fence.

Miles the border collie is always encouraging, and likes to spend his breaks in the shade of the trees or a barrel.  Sometimes he encourages Bo to use himself more naturally by taunting him, running just out of reach in front which gets Bo to lengthen out his topline as he snakes his head towards Miles to tell him to get out of the way. 

This is an example of the stretch Bo does when he's "tracking" Miles who is just visible at the top of the photo.