new start

Ok, I have a new start to talk about today.
First, though, Camina did pretty good today. I had her doing everything I needed to have her do. She is still making improvements on the ground and under saddle. I had her moving off my leg better today. I decided to test if it was my saddle that was making it hard for her to canter so I circled her and worked on upwards and downwards transitions without the saddle. She went into trot well and even the canter without too much resistance but she didn't want to stay in the canter very long. I tried both directions working on the transitions of gait until I was satisfied that she wasn't resisting me. Nevertheless, she still didn't want to keep cantering unless I kept asking her to keep going. Then I put the saddle on and did it again and the same result, not much resistance at all to go into the canter, but not staying in it for very many strides. Well when I got on her back she was nice and soft and yielding to the rein and leg. She offered to trot right away and even offered to canter for a few strides then quit. I kept going from walk to trot back to walk and then to trot then began to ask again for the canter. She gave it to me a couple times, but then only for a stride or two. The trot was no problem. I even asked her for collection which she began to offer me. We worked on a few leg yields before our time ran out.

Day one with Buddy
Next, I worked Buddy, he is a 13 yr old Qtr Horse. I decided to work him like a young colt, so I got him saddled and then circled him working on upwards and downward transitions until they were nice and soft. We changed directions several times with not objections. Then I worked on disengagements with softness and shoulders over. He did pretty good at this. I worked in a few disengagements followed by a shoulders over and walked off. I disensitized him to my whip, even cracking it a bunch of times. I sacked him out some with a bag and stick. I flexed him alot from both sides did some falling leaf's up and down the arena. Then I put the bridle on him and noticed a distinct change in flexing him, especially on the left side. There was alot of resistance, but we kept working on it. I tested out whether or not he would disengage with the rein and move his shoulders. I was satisfied I would have control of him in the saddle so I got on and flexed several more times on each side, still with the resistance. Then I started to ask him to walk forward, disengage and move his shoulders, walk forward then repeat. but there was still the resistance. I want to have control of that hip and the shoulders and he is not giving them up willingly all the time. In fact, I would say not ever 50% of the time. So we have to work on this alot more. It is no wonder Andrea and Greg have had some trouble with him. I have my work cut out for me. I have some concerns about letting others ride him, because of that resistance, that and the fact I will only be working him 2x a week. Nevertheless, I will keep my eye on him as others are working with him. Hopefully, we can back him out of that resistance.