Monday, March 22, 2010

Day 30

What a beautiful day. I was able to spend about 1 1/2 hours with Raven today on day 30 of working through the reis program. I can tell you that we have made a lot of progress. I went back to some basic tasks at first, just doing some balanced turns on center from the ground and then going to some LY towards me. We probably worked on these tasks for an hour everything from backing, staying with me at a walk and trot and then moving on to the tasks using the flag sticks in the invisible round pen. Then I got on her and my intention was to work on transitions and changing leads and lead departures. Then go to using the stick to get a disengagement. We did a lot of cantering around and changing up things with figure 8's and trying to do this with the vertical softness. Then we went to the disengagement with the help of the stick which is task #1 in horsmans course mounted class. That is what we stopped with and will continue on with.
My plan is to continue with Raven, but now see how far I can bring Jake in the same amount of time. He knows alot of this stuff too, but I know he is not going to like ground driving and such. I can tell you that just to go through some of the tasks at one time takes a good while. Because you have to have rest times in there to reward the right behavior. My thinking is that if I just worked on one or two tasks at a time til they got that down real good then move on to the next one and keep coming back to refine the previous ones. It would take a good while each day.
I have been offered a Peruvian Paso, bay, 15 yr old gelding, about 15 hands, but way under weight and long toed for free, along with the Aussie saddle. I dont' know if I am going to take him. He will need to have his teeth floated, vet check, and put on some weight before I can ride him though, probably have his feet trimmed. If I take him, my plan would be to get him in shape and see what his healthy attitude is, working for 60 to 90 days and then sell him. I am praying about it and will let you know what I do. That will put a little bit of change on what I do. I also am supposed to have 2 horses coming this spring to work with. Well gotta go. Have a great day.

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