Bo Jena Clinic: Long lining notes part 3

The horse to the right is a Friesian/Quarter horse cross -- what a delight this horse was! Pretty gaits, interesting color, but with a tendency to shorten the neck and perhaps a tendency to go lateral in the canter. Bo offered advice on fixing the shortened neck, but I can't recall what it was.

So  far, I've covered two of the three things Bo did with every horse:

1. Establish contact with the outside rein on a circle, walk, trot, canter.
2. Long line around the edge of the ring.

The third thing
Bo has every horse work in a collected trot so that the handler can follow at a brisk walk. He said 20 minutes of collected trot/walk transitions can be very beneficial and a good workout. Here's a tip: if you are looking to discover the potential of a dressage prospect for upper level work, see how readily they perform half-steps/collected trot on the long line. Some horses took to this readily, and some were extremely distrustful/resistant. One lovely 7 year old readily offered piaffe, and Bo turned to the owner: "Is this horse for sale?" He may have been joking but he said that it was very auspicious that this young horse collected so easily, and so willingly. This same horse also picked up long lining quickly, and he was actually more cooperative and confident in his work than some of the horses that had long lined before. He was an "R" line horse (Rubenstein) but I don't know much else about his breeding.