day 57, 58

Well I thought that I better get this recorded. It has been really hectic the last two days. Yesterday I had to do a shortened day with these guys so I didn't even saddle them. I worked on improving where they are at on the ground. I wanted to make sure they were calm and I could tell they were calm through each exercise. Today, I got Robbie out and had a good time with him. I spent about 30 minutes doing ground work, saddling and checking for calmness with him. Then I got on him for the last 30 minutes. I flexed and had him do circles again. I couldn't get him to go forward real well today so I began to work on YH and YF. We would go down the wall a ways and I would turn him into the wall, YH and Yf and go the other direction. I noticed that he really started to shake his head alot and I figured out that it was because I was on his mouth ever so slightly, because he would stop when I let the reins drop. When I picked them up to have him move forward he would start to shake his head again. So I have to work on letting him have his head and at the same time have him moving forward but ready to pick up a rein if needed. Darkstar was real calm today, though he jumped a couple times but it was almost half hearted. I saddled him and went through some exercises then I got on him and flexed him and asked him to move off. He actually moves forward better than Robbie at this point. But I would Yh and Yf and move forward. We went from getting one or two steps to getting 4 or 5 or even more. At the end of the session I decided to see if I could get vertical softness. After a few tries to the right he started giving it to me once he figured out what I was after and then he started giving it to me as soon as I picked up the reins like that. Then I went to the other side and it was faster yet that he picked it up. I can't wait to see if we can pick up where we left off tomorrow with this and then really start to get some forward motion with softness. That would be fantastic.