d15-17/r2

Ok, I have been real busy and forgot to post on Tuesday and Wednesday. So here goes.
I started driving Robbie with one rein. I have learned that he is real soft with the bit. I have worked with him on holding the bit and accepting it in his mouth. At first he was lifting his head high and clenching his teeth to get away from it, but now he is keeping his head much lower and accepting it better. He has been jumping the barrels with a tarp draped around him and flapping in the wind too. Today I drove him and worked on getting a walk, trot canter with softness. He is doing well responding to my cues to back off the canter to trot and to walk and stop. The next thing for him will be driving with two reins and when he is real soft with that then I will be riding him. I also have been getting on him and flexing him and then when I get off I get on my knees in the saddle and then jump down.
Darkstar is doing well too. I have him jumping the barrels with the tarp. Today I didn't get the tarp out because I wanted to drive both horses more. After feeling just how soft Robbie is and how hard Star is I decided to one rein drive him first to get him back to softness again. So we did that W,t, c and then I put the other rein on him and worked on the same thing. He got lots softer. I would like to see him carrying his head lower and see about getting the lateral flexion better so as to get vertical flexion, but that will come. I finished by driving him around the arena along the fence with shape to the outside then turned and went the other direction. Then I got on him and flexed him and got on my knees in the saddle with him too. He didn't stand good like Robbie did, but we accomplished it and finished off.
Next week ought to be exciting in terms of really making some progress. I hope to be riding both of them by the end of the week.