Jake//Raven

Wow is all I can say. There is nothing like moving with feel jsut me and the horse. There is something about that connection. I have it a little bit with Jake. He has some issues in terms of fear that I am going to help him get through. I had him moving on the line with a big float in it and he was moving with my feel. I got on him and moved him through his paces. He is rather braced on lateral flexion and that needs to get worked out. The odd thing is that he is soft from the saddle on vertical though. He has a real trouble with his feet regarding loping in either lead. So I started to work on that just getting him to canter in the correct lead for a few strides then let him back down to a trot and back up to canter in the correct lead. I think this is going to be a huge issue to work on. We did leg yields and bending laterally with forward movement and get him to wrap his body around my inside leg. Then I pulled out my rope and desensitized him to that in several ways. He did pretty good with that. More work needed but it looks promising. I am just glad to be able to have the time to work with him.
Then it was Raven's turn. I actually think she has been jealous that I have not paid attention to her lately. In fact, when I was done with Jake she was standing right behind him like she was saying, "now it is my turn." So I spent some time grooming her and getting her saddled. I really wanted to see how soft I could be and get the right result. So we started with disengaging, shoulders and back up. Oh, how soft. . I actually went back to some really advanced stuff, like moving in a leg yield away and toward me and she did. It needs a little more refinement but it worked. Then I got on her back and it all was still there. Like riding a bike. I had her so soft and flexed on the circle and we did some trotting and cantering. I even practiced roping off her back. At the end I wanted to see how easy it was to move her hind end to work towards that elusive haunches in. Then we did alot of sidepassing along the rail in both directions and then some turns on the forehand. She is real responsive. I hated to put her up, but my time was up. Hopefully, more tomorrow or at least the next few days.
I can't wait.