This is where the work lives.
After Anja reviewed my video, she pointed out there was too much angle and Blondie needed more left bend. So I tried to follow that guidance. Less angle, more bend.
When Blondie goes straight instead of bent—even though we’re moving sideways—it’s not shoulder-in. It’s a leg yield. A different exercise entirely.
Leg yield has its place. But it doesn’t build the carrying capacity she needs for those left turns.
The straight version isn’t harmful. But if I click it thinking it’s shoulder-in, I’m confirming that movement. Telling her: this is what I want. Do more of this.
If I reinforce that, it becomes the pattern. Cleaning up that mistake later will be much harder than getting it right from the start.
What I need to adjust is not the difficulty. It’s what I’m willing to click. Three steps with correct bend. Click, release, treat. Then set up again.
For shoulder-in? Surgical precision. Only the steps that bend, that carry, that build toward those left turns.
The left video is early in the process. I use a small circle to prepare the left bend before going into shoulder-in along the rail. When I feel a step improve, I click it.
The right video is the next ride. Not every step is good — you can see her hind end drifting toward the rail as she tries to straighten out. But watch the overall quality. It’s already much more fluid.
Blondie is trying to find the right steps. I am trying to make sure I’m not the reason she can’t.
But we’re getting there.
Michaela
Happy horses make happy people.