holes

Yes, I titled this 'holes' there are holes in my training with So Grand. I discovered that today. I got him saddled, but he didn't want to. He didn't hold out long. I had really moved him around flowing from YH to YF to sending to back up and so on not real fast, but so that he didn't get a chance to stop until I went to saddle him. Then He decided to move some more. I shut him down and put the saddle on then took halter off and made him move more going through the same things at liberty. No bucking or anything. My goal was to ride him a few minutes then to drive him with long lines. So considering what happened yesterday and not wanting a repeat performance I was making darn sure that he would not get locked up when moving his butt over. However, every now and then he would get stuck and instead of moving with just pressure from the stirrup I would actually have to slap him on the hip to get him to move. Well, I want immediate movement as soon as I pickup the rein and add my leg, I want that hind leg to move over. I figure if I can't get it on the ground 100% I am not going to get it from his back. So I worked some more. Then went to make a rein out of the lead, and he wouldn't stand still so I took that as, "I am not ready to be ridden yet." So I really started to move his feet and when I finally stopped he was real soft and yielding. Then I started to play with throwing the lead over his head so I could have him do the turn and go where he bends away from me and follows his nose around. Well he didn't like that lead around his hind end and so we worked on that for a good while. Like I said, I want to ground drive him, but if he can't accept the lead around his butt like that he sure isn't gonna like the long line around it. So I worked on that from both sides until he was soft following his nose around like that. By the time we were done he was huffing and puffing and relaxing with his head down. I figured that was a good place to stop and let him think on it over the weekend. Moon was just like I thought he would be today. It didn't take much to gather him up and saddle him. I moved him around a little to see where his mind was, but he showed me he was with me. So I got on him and rode him around. Got into a canter in both directions a couple times. We did one rein stops and backups a step. We did YH and then when he was set just right I asked for YF and he worked right into it. Then we did this at the trot. I banged and scratched the wall, the fence anything to help him. He would actually go back to what I just hit as to see what it was. He was a real pleasure to ride today.