progress

I had a good lesson with both horses yesterday. I got moon out first. While he is very stiff flexing he is still a good horse. He has a high energy, but he stands well for saddling and putting his boots on, even bridling is not too bad. I like them to bend to me and lower their head when I put the halter or bridle on or off. He will do it but he literally springs right back. I was able to walk trot and canter him in the rd pen. The paddock was a pool so the round pen was our place. He did well following his nose. I have been working on a good stop and back up. He is getting it and believe it or not he is starting to soften vertically when I ask for a back up. So Grand is stands good for saddling too. The shims have made a world of difference. I think also for both horses the stretching I do with them has a lot to do with their willingness to stand and even offer me their feet. Anyway, I saddled him and I could tell something was off. I kinda thought the shims were not placed exactly right. So when I started riding him I could tell by his movement that he wasn't comfortable so I took the saddle off and repositioned the shims then resaddled. It was fine then. We did have a little bit of a dust up. No bucking or anything, but I use the crop to get him to move. Not much, Actually, I use it as a last resort. If he doesn't move with my body energy or my clucking to him then I use a gentle tap on my leg then to his hip until he moves. He began to move quite well, but something bothered him and he got a little worried. But from that point on he moved when asked. I even got him to trot quite a bit for me. Then I started working on bending exercises. All in all, the lessons were profitable.