Joey Day 13

Wow, I am impressed. That's right. I tried to make Joey buck by flanking him out with my rope and he barely hopped. I was pulling him sideways and he did a tiny bit of flick with his butt and that was all. Now for those who don't know what flanking a horse out is . . . . Have you seen a rodeo with bucking horses or bulls? That strap around their belly just in front of their rear hip and that is what makes them buck. Notice the animal quits bucking as soon as the flank rider takes it off. Well, that is what I did with Joey. It is just another safety check. The second thing I did was let the 22' line get caught up under his tail. This will usually make a horse buck, but he just clamped, hopped a bit and then when he relaxed his tail the line drops out. That teaches him that release from pressure comes when he relaxes. He did well at both of these exercises. So we just reviewed the main tasks. I flagged him out with the bag again and he was pretty relaxed with that too. The last thing I did before I started riding him was to send him sideways down the rail several times in each direction and then did it with his butt to the rail. He again is making improvements each time.
Finally, I got on him and worked him for softness and then we trotted and mainly cantered. When I felt it was time we went out on the road again. This time he was a lot better than yesterday. He still wanted to stay around the home, but we went farther and worked harder doing circles around trees, trotting, etc. Cantered up and down the road too. Then we worked also disengaging his hindquarters and moving that into moving his shoulders over. We even did some leg yields. I feel like he is going to make some good progress on this. And that's when it gets fun. When you can control all the zones of a horse when you want too, the ride gets safer and more fun. It is like going from a car without power steering to one with it. Or like going from a ford escort, to lincoln town car or Cadillac.
I don't know how far I will have him along, but we will make good progress I'm sure.
We did have a real good ride and workout, even as hot as it was. I just love how relaxed this horse seems to be.
til next time.