Racename: XXXXX aka Heathcliff

4 year old gelding Standardbred trotter off the track being re-trained to ride. Never made breaks, sound, just not fast and very lazy.
Day 1: Typical Standardbred, stiff as a board. Worked on flexing to the rope halter, yielding hindquarters and sending both directions at the walk.
Day 2: Repeated exercises from yesterday. Worked on picking up the trot on the lunge line. He is extremely lazy and stiff. Have the feeling he’s been nagged and pecked at to the point he is totally desensitized. My immediate goal is to get him to maintain the trot until I cue him to walk/halt.
Day 3: Added the western saddle with a back cinch, no bridle. I’ll spend the next week, or however long it takes, working on flexion, bending, promptly obeying commands, and maintaining the trot. It’s important to remember not only am I mentally teaching him, but he needs to build strength in his muscles to flex and balance trotting around me. Although he flexes his head/neck better to the right, he’s having a real hard time bending the rest of his body that way. I do a lot of spiraling in and out at the trot. As soon as I get even a slight give and bend, I let him back out into a larger circle. Very important to reward the slightest try and keep encouraging him and telling him he’s doing a good job. This is a big strong horse that doesn’t want to work anyway. Pushing him too much will only make him sour and resentful. Take a lot of breaks. He loves to stand still, so I use those breaks for the desensitizing exercises.
Day 10: trotting nice circles. No longer hanging on the rope, but tipping his nose in and getting his inside hind leg under himself. Better at picking up the trot and he now maintains it without any further prompting. Very good at yielding his hindquarters. Have added the bridle and doing flexing to the bit. Very dead mouth, particularly the left side. Would probably be better in a side pull or hackamore, but since most people ride with a bit, I’m going to work to get him soft to the bit, if only to prove it can be done. Ready to mount?
Day 12: Tough day. I guess he’s decided to test me. Kept running forward into my space, would not back out of it. I tried everything in the Anderson bag of tricks. Nothing. Finally got my 2 long lines, hooked them to the rope halter (not the bridle), ran them through the saddle stirrups and got behind him. Leaned my whole weight into the ropes. We stood there in a tug of war. He had his head flexed right to his chest, wouldn’t budge. At one poin the got so mad, he was pawing the ground in anger. He tried swinging his hindquarters around, but I was able to correct that with the long lines down around his stifles. Finally he made a tiny move backwards. I immediately let go the pressure. Let him relax and think about it about 10 seconds, then leaned into him again. He resisted but finally took another small step back. Immediate release. I could see this was going to be a looong day. We worked on this for over an hour. Finally got him to back, albeit reluctantly, across the arena. Good enough for today. I can see backing is going to be a major project. Definitely not ready to mount up while he is still so resistant.
Day 17: Spent the last few days reinforcing all the basics and doing a LOT of backing up. Beginning to really relax and carries a nice low natural headset at the trot. Also doing a lot of the flex, press ribcage with my thumb until he yields, then rubbing to a stop ala Clinton Anderson exercise on Riding with Confidence Series I Preparing to Mount. .
Day 20: Mounted for the first time. As expected, he was unsure what the hell I was doing up there. (Oh yes, every day during grooming I had been climbing on a bucket alongside him so he would get somewhat used to me being up in the air over him.) Had helper lead me around. Typical head in the air, hollow back Stb carriage.
Day 21: Off the leadline. Moving forward on the chirp. Very hesitant and unsure. Do most of the real work on the lunge line, mostly standing still while mounted working on flexing to the bit. Disengages and yields hindquarters pretty good off my leg.
Day 22: Always groundwork first on the rope. Flexes very well to the halter, not so much to the bit. Yielding hindquarters very well. Sending and picking up the trot nicely. Worked on moving shoulders.
Free lunged* for the first time. As expected, ran around bug-eyed at first. Then settled down into a relaxed trot.
Mounted, no issue. Still resists backing. Flexing better. Worked on moving forward at the squeeze. Squeeze, cluck, spank. Totally respects while not fearing the spank. Also worked on the one-rein stop. Very amenable to stopping, but still needs to understand it is not his choice, but my demand Lol I want to make sure he understands when the command to whoa is given, it is to be obeyed no matter what. I’ll be able to better reinforce that when we start doing it at the trot. Also worked on stepping out on a nice brisk walk, not lollygagging.
*Free-lunging: Eventually he will be asked to trot (then canter) on a loose rein around the arena. Called “cruising“. It is the horse‘s responsibility to maintain a relaxed cadenced gait without rider constantly nagging with legs and bit, which means no jamming up in the corners, no breaking down to a walk.. If the horse breaks down to a slower gait (trot to walk, canter to trot) rider must immediately correct using the squeeze, cluck, spank. At first it will be inevitable the spank will be necessary. I want the horse to understand it does not mean leap forward in panic, but just pick up the pace as asked. This is best accomplished first from the ground. Send the horse into a trot around the arena. Let him go wherever he wants so long as he maintains the trot. If he tries to jam in the corner, use the whip to encourage forward movement. He‘ll soon learn to round around those corners, and he‘ll learn the whip is not being used to punish but to encourage.
Day 25: Huge breakthrough today. Finally feel like we’re getting somewhere. Moving off my leg pretty consistently. Starting to bend nicely in the circles. Tipping his nose inside and following it around with a nice give to the bit. Got some nice vertical flexion at the standstill. Starting to drop his head and flex when asked to back up instead of sticking his nose in the air and fighting me. He’s going to need a lot of work getting his hind end underneath him and collecting his body, but we’re making definite progress.
Day 26: Another good day. Moves off at the squeeze, stepping right out on a “going somewhere” walk. I can shift my weight around, swing my arms all over, lean forward/backward rubbing him all over -- he doesn’t care. (As Clinton puts it, ride like you’re drunk) Halting on the loose rein as soon as I sit deep in the saddle. That’s from the walk, now, the one-rein stop will get further reinforced when we trot, but I can see “whoa” is going to be his favorite move. LOL Did a lot of serpentines, and even some turns off the wall with a little rollback front leg crossover at the walk. Maintaining fairly straight lines on the post-to-post exercise.* Still better flexing to the right than left, but he’s much improved. (deadmouth on the left rein. Typical racehorse mouth, you see it all the time, heavy-handed driver with wrist through the left handhold, horse with head all cranked around. What's up with that?) Not so resentful anymore, in fact, I don’t think he swished his tail once.
*I ride my horses on a loose rein. When I set them on a course, I expect them to maintain that course not wander all over.. I hate the English style of riding where the rider constantly hangs on the mouth. I understand dressage and collection but that’s an experienced rider with light hands. Too many novices use the reins for balance. I saw many times at the other arena students taking lessons, horse would stumble, and they’ld practically go over the horses head. No give or flexibility at all in the elbows and shoulders.
Day 27: Really making progress now. Got him to trot under saddle on a loose rein. A floppy, lazy flat-footed trot, but I know it will get better. Didn't spook or get stupid at all, even started dropping his head down. As predicted, real quick to stop. lol Has that move down pat. Also did some rollbacks off the wall on the lunge line. Did a couple nice moves off his hind end. Started working on moving his shoulders off my leg, and got a couple two-tracking moves out of the circle. Once I establish good forward movement I can start working on collection.
Day 33: Introduced cavalettis. This will get him picking his feet up (typical Stb drags his hind legs, weak in the stifles. It's my opinion we Stb racehorse trainers spend way too little time building stifle muscles which I believe may be the cause of many lameness issues). Stb also have a bad habit of not watching where they put their feet. They've spent so much time checked up with shadow rolls. I use heavy landscaping logs that won't move. He clunked his toes a couple times, then started watching what he was doing. Also started using the Kineton Noseband with the bridle. Love this piece of equipment on the Stb for both riding and jogging. Distributes pressure to both the nose and mouth and since most racehorses have mouths like iron, they seem to respond better to nose pressure. Yesterday he spent most of the day with his head out the stall, looking to socialize with me. Acts like he's starting to enjoy his new job.
Day 34: Went out and about the farm today. He is such a good horse. Flushed a herd of 5 deer back by the woods. He saw them before I did, just stopped with his head up watching them bounce off through the trees. He's just the kind of horse you feel safe on. Very smart. He just needs work on watching where he puts his feet.

It's been 6 weeks. Last few days have been spent doing lots of bending and flexing. Vertical flexion at the walk. I'm now wearing spurs, NOT to jab him into forward movement, but to tickle his sides to get that rib cage arced away from my leg. Getting him to "curl" around my leg, so to speak, while doing circles. Also changed to a short-shank, copper snaffle mouthpiece gag to get a little more lift. He's backing up better and moving his shoulders when asked. Actually starting to respond to the neck rein a bit and cross over his front legs for a turn on the hindquarters.
Now that I've figured the video out, I'll take some video Mon or Tues when this cold snap breaks, and post.