catching on

Yesterday and today were really good days for So Grand and Moon regarding driving. I started to desensitize every chance I get, like I do during the gw exercises. It seems to calm them down and the are willing to stand more. They are great at anticipating me wanting them to move off. Anyway, they made great improvements. So Grand is starting to catch on to being vertically soft with forward movement. I've been driving him just as if I was riding him. So I was doing circle esses around the obstacles I am using as cones. That has helped. CA calls these bending exercises. Only I am doing them while driving the horse. Once this caught on with me it caught on with him. I also found something else out. So Grand will turn by my body position without the use of reins. That was fun. That tells me that if my body position is in one place and my hands telling him something else he gets confused. So I have to pay closer attention to my body position. Moon did well too. I have him getting softer laterally on the circle and just driving him. He is also starting to pick up the softness I am after. I also started to ask him for some leg yields on the fence. He gave me a few in each direction, but he is trying to figure it out. I think it goes back to my body position. So tomorrow I will be paying attention to that with both these guys. I have also been doing the stretching exercises with them. They really seem to like it and stand still for me even offering me their feet as if to say, don't forget this one. They both are real nice horses once you get to know them. Moon has issues with his neck and lateral flexion to the left. So Grand has issues with his back and withers. But they really are nice horses.