Domino 13

Maybe its the curse of the 13 I don't know, but today's session didn't go that well. He is hooking on to me really good now. Every now and then I have to get him back but it doesn't take much but a shift of my body language when he is looking at me. I worked him on leg yields, he does them pretty good and just reviewed the others. I rode him in the pen for just a few minutes then took him on the road. He didn't want to leave, which is pretty much a given for any horse. But I wanted to get him moving out better on the trot. Haven't had him in a canter yet. But I probably rode him for an hour at the trot working on lateral softness and following his nose. But he got really stiff and when we were trotting back to the home grounds, we were just in front and down the road a couple hundred feet or so, I could turn his head but his body wouldn't follow. So I had to really work on that a lot just doing circle esses. When I did let him get back to the yard I made him work a lot and then took him back down the road and let him rest, and repeated that a couple times. Then he didn't have such a hard time leaving his friends. He does like to balk alot so I just made him disengage and go in small circles then let him out of it. At the end of the session he was going down the road better. However, I can see that I have alot to do with him yet. It is a good thing I have 17 more sessions with him before he goes home. The weather is supposed to get colder and rainier over the next couple days so that will make things interesting.
I also did alot of lateral flexion on him because he seems to be getting bracier. So we will see what happens.
Til next time.