Starting at the Beginning
Well, seems like we're making a fresh start with Boppy; and seeing as this is a very important step in his and my life, I figured it would be a great idea to document his progress.

Starting: Yesterday.

Yesterday, Friday, my neighbour's equine trainer, Jaime, came to work with the horses. After observing her working with Ollie, then watching her do stallwork with Pal and Starby, she suggested I go get Boppy. So I hop through the field and pick up Boppy, hitching him up to his cart and harness and brought him over after a short excercise drive.

I brought him in and Jaime watched him as I unhitched him. She said to me, "You've done an excellent job with him!" So far we've been doing simple things like transitions and whatnot, praising him highly for everything he does right. Then I learned from her exactly how he should be rewarded, punished, exactly what his behaviour should be, etc. Then she noticed what I have been watching for quite some time: the ill use of his back legs. Most horses develop this over time; they forget that they have a butt and hind legs, and do not use them correctly. Boppy, when pivoting, does not cross over his hind legs as he should, but holds them in one place on the floor so that they are being twisted around and sliding. Jaime then taught me how to do a Figure 8 wrap which is a special wrap using an Ace Bandage that helps them become more aware of their body and movements, including the hind end. The difference between before the wrap and after was quite amazing. You could see a definition in muscle the was not there before, he was bending his hocks and lifting them more, and crossing over while pivoting! This didn't fix him permanently. This will have to be done once a day or every other day, slowly increasing the time a little bit. It's like when you begin a new sport or use yourself differently than normal - you will ache. We barely used it five minutes yesterday, and his hind legs were already a little shaky.

Today we did a bit of halter work, enforcing 'laws' about where he should be when he's walking, and conducting himself correctly. One of the big things is not reaching down to eat ever five seconds, and not pawing at the ground when he gets bored. He is doing this increasingly less, and hopefully sooner than later he will have banished the habit entirely. I also used the wrap on him for about five minutes, once again achieving better results than before.