Day 3 with Ceasar

Here he is looking interested somewhat.
I really worked him today. I went through the basic stuff we have been working on so as to refine them more. He is getting better at all of it. His backup is getting sharper. He is getting softer in lateral flexion and really getting his hindquarters over. I even had him moving his shoulders over real good today. Then I did the sending exercise with alot better results because it incorporates the disengagement and moving the shoulders into one fluid movement. I should say I started with sending him around the pen and teaching him to catch me. He did good. He hooked on to me within a few minutes and let me flog him with whip. I wanted to test out his bucking reflex so after all the above was going pretty good I got him used to my lariat and then put it around his girth and put pressure on it. He moved a little then I moved him around the pen at a trot and pulled tighter on the rope and he started to buck and as it moved back farther on his flank he bucked more. I kept the pressure on him and made him move faster until he quit the bucking then let up the pressure on the rope. We went through this process several times and after probably 15 minutes he was done bucking and I could pull on the rope and he would just walk. What I am after is for him to yield to the pressure by coming into it instead of getting all bent out of shape. I want to be able to lead him by his flanks, if I so desired, without  fuss from him. He was all sweated up and huffing and puffing so I took the rope off and saddled him. He stands alright for that but then when I moved him off again he went to bucking again so I put the pressure on him to move again until he settled down. Then I got the bag stuff out and the tarp and went through those things to desensitize him more. He bucked with the tarp but eventually settled down. He seems to be one whose answer is going to be to buck. What he is telling me loud and clear is that he is not ready to ride yet. I have been on his back using the Jeffries method, but not in the saddle. I was hoping to get some on him today, but the way he was bucking, I am not in for much of a rodeo. I just don't bounce very well. Anyway, we quit when he was nice and calm and willing to parley a bit about accepting the saddle. I will start again tomorrow. He is going to be an interesting one. I hope to see alot less bucking tomorrow, but we may have to go that direction a few more times before he has had enough. Til then. Adios.