18th day

Had a good time with Ceasar today. I tried a different saddle and different approach. I got in the pen with him and he started to walk away, but I caught his eye and pulled him toward me. Then I got the halter and he started to walk away, but I pulled his eye again and he came towards me. I kept walking away from him and he stuck with me, so I put the halter on him. I walked with him some and then sent him around me and had to work at getting him to slow down to a walk, but after a while he would go off at a walk. Lisa if you go to parelli's horsenality I think he is a left brain introvert predominately. Anyway, I introduced the pad again and worked through that. Then the different saddle, on and off, on and off a few times. I cinched him up and sent him off. He didn't really buck, just went off at canter. I slowed him down and worked with him on these things til he would calm down. I then got on him and rode for the last 30 minutes. He gave me what I was after, walk trot canter. Then I just started working on softness at the walk. I discovered one of the things when he canters is that he is not balanced at all. I could tell because he would make a sucking wind noise every other step. That's why I went back to working on softness. If I can get him balanced at the walk and trot then I can work on getting him balanced at the canter. Which will make it easier for both of us. so that is what we will work on tomorrow.