Wednesday, August 19, 2009

t13

I didn't get a chance to write yesterday so today's post includes both days.
Last night the owner came and watched as I worked with Haycee. She has made improvements everyday. I worked on the dailies explaining to them what I was doing. Saddled her and then lunged her both directions working on transitions. She did well. Although she pins her ears when I ask her to speed up. But after multiple transitions she stopped pinning her ears. I wondered if it might be the saddle fit. Anyway, the owners were glad to see the progress she is making. The biggest issue they had with her was getting her to respect their space. Well, she does now. They liked how she stood for saddling and mounting without moving off even a step or two. I mounted her from both sides. Then I flanked her out and she is responding well to the pressure on her flanks slowing down from a trot to walk and then a stop just with the flank rope. She is also getting better at following that feel on her flank to actually lead her with it. Then I laid her down one more time (I won't do this alot more) and she went down like a sack of potatoes. This time she was really relaxed, stopped swishing her tail, crossed her hind legs, took a big sigh of breathe, blinking her eyes. She was totally relaxed. Felice came in and rubbed her down a good bit. Then we got her up and I worked a little more with her and quit. Monday She is going to start coming over so I can teach her the things she needs to know in order to help Haycee be the horse she needs to be.

Today, I wanted to see if she would still pin her ears even without the saddle on while doing transitions on the lunge. She did. So it really wasn't saddle fit. She just doesn't want to do it. She will do the transitions she just lets me know she doesn't like it. I worked on the dailies again. I really want to get her disengaging rock solid. I saddled her and lunged her. I did ground work for about forty minutes. Then I got on her and started asking her to move off. I should say that she accepted the bit, though she didn't want to put it in her mouth. She didn't really seem to be bothered by it though. I flexed her several times and then asked her to move off. She has sticky feet so getting her to move was a chore. Tomorrow I will have my riding bat with me. She will move then. I had a difficult time working on the disengaging, probably because she wouldn't go forward very good. However, she will move her shoulders over in both directions so that isn't so bad. I rode for about 20 minutes then quit her. I flexed her 10x each side and asked her to disengage from the ground using the rein several times from both sides. All in all I think she is making improvements daily. She didn't even run away from me when I went to get her for school.
So far it seems good. Tomorrow is another and hope for more improvement.

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