buddy

Had a good session with Buddy today. I am thankful for an indoor arena, especially on a cold, snowy, blustery day like today.
I did my usual ground work with him to warm him up. I have been spending alot of time, in the beginning, desensitizing him to the crack of a whip and a plastic bag. He is doing good with those.
Anyway, my goal today was to just get on him and ride him at a walk and trot on a loose rein and really get him to bend on the circle and to respond to the rein without lifting his head. I also wanted to work on moving his hip and his shoulders over with him being as straight as possible at a standstill. He made little strides that we will build off of. The result of the work today was that when I asked him to stop on a loose rein and back up he did. He also did move his shoulders for me. He is really becoming a nice horse to ride, but the key is to make sure I am only using the rein when I need it and that I am as calm as possible with him. He is really going to make a lot of progess in the weeks ahead.