Joey day 6

Well, I just got in from riding Joey. He is going to be prettttty goood, I think. I haven't worked him since Saturday so he has had 2 days off. I was expecting some possible resistance, but he was pretty good. I did my daily 7 as I call them. Flexion, disengagement, etc. Then I saddled him and adjusted the padding a litte different. When I unsaddled last time I noticed a dry spot right behind his shoulders so I beefed it up a little. That seemed to work better. When I unsaddled tonight there was no dry spot. I did alot of sending him between me and the fence from the ground. I also began to work on leg yields down the fence or side passes. I even began sending him and following him as if I was driving him with one rein and then asking for leg yields toward the fence. He can do it. I also constantly was reinforcing all of the tasks worked on earlier, trying to refine them more.
From the saddle I simply mounted and dismounted from both sides. He stood real good Kathryn. Then I did some lateral flexion and vertical flexion exercises at a stand still. Then I began to ask him to back up. I got a step and relaxed, then asked again. He is getting real responsive here even to my seat. It was only then that I asked him to move forward. It is real muddy in my pen right now so I didn't have him trotting alot. However, we did work on the disengagement and one rein stop and back up quit a bit. I worked him on what I call circle esses in order to get him to follow his nose and get soft for me. By the time we got to these though our time was almost up.
We will pick up tomorrow where we left off and try to make progress from there.