Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Flanked them yesterday

Callie did good today. I worked him in the pen. Then walked him up to be saddled. He stands real good for that. Then we rode back up to the pen and did some trotting and loping around. Then we went down the road and I let him alone. I found some trees to do some circle bending to work on softening him. Then we trotted down the road for a 1 1/2 miles doing various things to keep his mind occupied. We came back the same way. I was curious if he would want to hurry up and get back. But he didn't show signs he was in a big hurry. I have to keep prodding him to get him to stay In a trot, but he did ok. We walked right past the other horses, there was some talking back and forth but we walked back up to get unsaddled with no trouble. I brought him back to his pen and did some gw before putting him up. Moon did great today. It did not take him long to want to be near me. We went through some exercises and then I did the Jeffries method 4x each side. He was real comfortable with that. With him being reactive I wondered how that would go. Then I got the saddle pad out and sacked him out with that until he was comfortable. Next I flanked him out with the lead. Did the girth, barrel and flank. He did better than expected. He did buck some with the flank but he caught on before too long that if he relaxed the pressure would go away or not get worse. I did both sides on him. I started to sack him out with the saddle, but he was not ready for that yet. He had enough of new things for the day. So Grand was a bit standoffish today, but it didn't take long to get him to be near me. I kinda did about the same thing with him as with Moon. I went through all the exercises in one 15 or 20 minute section of longeing, circling, sending, yh and yf, back up, driving in a straight line and so on. This really gets him focused on me. Then I did some flexing and the Jeffries method 5x on each side. He was real good with that. Then I got the pad out and sacked him out. I then flaned him out too. He got worried with it around his girt, barrel and flank. Lots of bucking but by the time we were done he was huffing and puffing and walking and yielding to the pressure around him. I flexed him some more and finished with him.

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