2nd month

Well yesterday I started again with the Arabs.
I did some reviewing, reinforcing and refining with both of them.
I got Darkstar in the arena and saddled him with no trouble. I started to review all the exercises with him and then went outside. But the flies were so bad I had to bring him back indoors. We just continued there. Again I went through desensitizing, picking up his feet, worked more on YH and YF to get that even better. I was having trouble getting him to YH more than one or two steps before he would step back. I refined it by changing my position to make sure I am behind the drive line when he steps over so that it will drive him ahead instead of back. That worked lots better and I got a 360 degree movement out of him. So that is just me refining my position better. I also am working on the lead behind more because he likes to balk every now and then instead of stick with me. Other than the flies the workout was good.
Robbie got a good workout too. Because of the experience with Darkstar we didn't go outside. He wanted to move after I groomed him so I lunged him in both directions working on LR1&2 with him. He does real good at that. I am trying to refine him to the point of getting him to walk instead of immediately go into a trot. I also worked with putting the saddle on him. I sacked him out with the pad and saddle several times both sides. Then I put the saddle on and pulled the cinch tight, but could tell he was braced up and tight so I just held it and when he relaxed I released it. He would move off too so I would hold the pressure of the girth until he stopped and relaxed and then released. I had to follow him around with the pressure several times until he stopped, all the while holding the pressure of the girth. Finally, it got to the point where he just stood there when I tightened the cinch. I started counting to 5 and release, then 15 and release all the way up to 30. If he didn't move then I released it. Then I removed the saddle and we worked on the other exercises, sending, circling, YH YF backup etc. At the end I was flexing him and then flexed him from the opposite side and slowly let the lead over his but and had him do the turn and go. We did both sides and while they were not perfect I quit him so that he could think about that. Now today I will just pick up where we left off with each of them.