Joey day 18

Ok, today we had the best ending of the training. Why, you ask? Let me tell you. As you know, I have been trying to get Joey to follow his nose and keep the arch of the circle and he would do fine on one part and not on the other. So, after doing some warmup ground work, I took him in the yard and we began our workout. He still would not go well so we worked and worked on it and I was asking myself why is he not turning correctly. I tried moving his shoulders, disengaging, both of which he does and still to no avail. I tried to sit to the inside of the circle just off center, still nothing. We went down the road at a canter with little on the rein. We even went down to the corner and rested. Walked all the way back and then went down to the church parking lot and did some circles there. Still not having the effect. Finally, it was getting late in the session and it was very hot, so when we got back I started to collect him up and get him really soft, massaging his tongue with the inside rein, and using my inside calf. I did this when he was picking up his inside hind foot and asked for some arch in his body and low and behold he did it. I stopped and rested. then asked again and he did it again. So I really had to put him to the test doing it several more times in both directions and we got it. Sometimes you wonder if the horse is just being a knot head when they don't do something. When really I was the knot head. My wife would probably tell you that at times.:} But now I know what I will how to ask him to do this. Now I just want to work on staying on the arch of the circle. But he has two days off now of much needed rest for him. We will pick up where we left off on Monday.