t20

Hi,
I did work Haycee Saturday. What was to be just an easy workout turned out to be a 2 hour session. It started good. She was responding to the ground lessons and we were moving smoothly from one exercise to the next. I had intended to see how she would do on her transitions and then move on to some desensitizing exercises. I really didn't want her to get into sweat. But she had other plans. I lunged her and the transitions were going good. So I decided to get on her and work on transitions. It was fine from walk to trot. But when I asked her for a canter she was like a stone wall. Nothing I did could get her to move. Then she would just stop. So I would use my crop and finally get her to sluggishly walk off, then go to a trot, reluctantly. After doing this for about 3o minutes and only getting a few strides in a canter or not. I got off of her and lunged her through those transitions from trot to canter and back to trot until she was going without resistance and calm. I worked on that for probably another 20 minutes. Then I worked briefly on the dailies that she knows and walked her around the arena stopping every so often to make sure she was keeping the bubble between us and also moving with the pressure, keeping slack in the lead as I led her off. Then I quit. We were both sweaty when I we were finished.

Now, yesterday which would have been t21, I got her saddled and moved quickly through the dailies she knows and then moved on to lunge her. She did the transitions pretty good, no resistance per se. However, when I got on her she walked a little faster and then wanted to immediately go into a trot without being asked. So I bent her down, then when she decided to trot again I wouldn't let her slow down, then she went into a canter, kinda bucky, but not like she was trying to get me off and of course I had one rein so I could bend her down whenever she tried. Now the problem wasn't her sticky feet, but her wanting to move faster before I asked her. I had only planned on riding about 1o minutes just enough to go through a few transitions in either direction, not even intending to get a canter out of her. But she changed my agenda and I couldn't stop riding her now until she was soft and calm in the walk and trot. So for another 2o minutes or so we worked on getting her responding to me without resistance. Whenever she started trotting or cantering before I asked her I picked up one rein and either bent her to a walk or just slowed her down. In hindsight as I have thought about it overnight, I wonder if I should have just kept her going and moving out real good, because she has had sticky feet. Anyway, when I started to sense her change I just had her walk around calmly then when she gave me that I stopped and flexed her for a few minutes. She is still not real soft, but is getting better each day. Then it was Felice' turn. She went through the dailies and did well. She has some refining to do but that will come with practice. I then showed her how to lunge her. She did that a few times and then we quit. It was getting dark.
Thus, my estimation is that we kinda went backwards on some things, but on others she is doing good. I think she is a horse that needs to be ridden by someone who will be on their toes and not let her get away with making her own decisions on anything.
So long for today.