Dec.13

Well it was cold in the fridge again. But better there than outside where the wind was really blowing. I thought the arena might lift off a few times it was blowing so hard.
Buddy was reall good again today. I warmed him up a bit more today because it was so cold. I wanted to make sure that any high energy was under wraps and that he was going to be completely yielded to me. And He was. When I go on him he stood real nice for me while I flexed him. Then we walked off and started to go through the exercises. My goal today was to really try to get the hip and shoulder moving with straightness as much as possible. He was better, but not what I was after. We will just have to keep working at it. I started him trotting around and doing the circle esses and he was getting real soft for me. Then about half way through the lesson he decided all he wanted to do was lope around or walk. He didn't want to trot. So I let him lope some and kept asking him to give me a trot and whenever I picked up the rein he went into a canter that was out of balance with his head lifted high. In hindsight I should have go off and circled him through the transitions then when he was giving them to me good, get back on. I will do that if it happens again. Anyway, he is doing pretty good. He even did good for one of my students who rode just after my session with him.
As for Camina, I got back with her also. She really showed her attitude doing a bit of bucking during the ground work. She probably was just kicking it up a bit because it was cold and she didn't like to have to work. Anyway we worked that out of her. I didn't want to get her all sweated up so I had to be sure to accomplish what I needed to without having to make her work alot. So instead of moving her out real fast, I just kept changing gaits, direction, and exercises on her until I could see her attitude change. Then we slowed down a bit and let her relax more. As it was I did about 30 minutes of ground work on her to see what she remembered and to refresh her memory. Then I got on her and held on. She always wants to take off. Now let me say, I never let her go just after I get on her. I always make her stand there and flex her on both sides. Then I let her move off. Once we do move she always wants to get in a trot, fast, all the way down to the other end of the arena into a corner then turn around and she will trot down to the other corner. I let her do it after I do some disengaging and moving of the shoulders, what amounts to a spin in both directions a few times to make sure I have some directional control. Then I let her go. Pretty soon she doesn't want to keep trotting and make her trot until I am ready to go at a walk. Then we can start to get some things done. This time my goal was to just refresh her memory since it has been a couple weeks since I rode her last.  I also wanted to work on her just going in a nice circle with shape. So that is what we did. I think I just need to keep working on that with her for most of the session next time and really get her moving out nicely on a consistent circle.
Well that is the latest on these two. Have a good one.