Honey Bun day 10- Friday 8/28/15

I took her down to the rd pen at the church. She did pretty good with sending circling and backing down the drive and road. I used the ditch as an obstacle for sending. Then we went into the pen and did some LR1&2. The dog was barking trucks going by. She did alright. 

Went back somewhat relaxed but did some leading behind to get her to quit dragging. Then I saddled her and went to the platform. We worked about 10 minutes but she finally walked over it in both directions. She was nice and relaxed with that. We went into rd pen and I put the bridle on her. She had no problem with the bit. I did some bridle bending with her and some YH and backups. Then got on and rode her for the last 30 minutes. We practiced YH, follow the nose. She did real good transitions from walk to trot to canter. She was calm at all 3 gaits. A nice ride. 

Honey Bun day 9-8/27/15

Today I started her in the pasture just with lunging 1, 2 and did some backing. I also did circling with her. She was doing pretty good. She would pin her ears a bit and when I was doing LR 2 she would look at me and pin her ears when I asked for change of direction. I wonder if the ear thing was her telling me she has got it and lets move on or if she just had an attitude? I am not sure. She didn't do it every time though. I have a platform obstacle and had her begin to go over that. I would send her and she would try to avoid it or jump it. I kept at it with her giving rests at appropriate times and after about 20 minutes or so she would go over it calmly from both directions. She went through a cycle of calmness and get to the point where she would put one foot on as she went over then she would fall apart and she would go back to jumping and trying not to go over it. But I kept at it with some rest periods when she gave me a good try and then she was on the good part of the learning cycle. Then we moved into the rd. pen to do some liberty work and I led her by her feet, tried to get a buck out of her with flanking out. I was running out of time, but I laid her down. She went down nicely and laid there for several minutes while I rubbed on her. Then I put the saddle on and off a couple times then cinched up and sent her around to see how she would be. No problem. Then I started getting a foot in the stirrup and on and off her. Then we went for her second ride. Got a good walk, trot, canter out of her. I also was working on her following her nose with softness and picking up a foot with the rein. All in all, it went well today.

Honey Bun day 8 8/26/15

I walked her into the large arena and had her doing some circling and sending and backing up. She did pretty good in all of them. I did a few moving the shoulders, still not as good as I want.
We also did a few turn and go exercises til she was real light on each side.
She is completely relaxed through all of this so far.
I put her in the rd. pen to start doing introducing some new stuff to her.
I led her by her feet. She was real stiff with this, not panicky at all though. I did this until she was walking forward consistently by me leading her feet.
I flanked her out again. I started with her right side and couldn't get her to buck.
The left side didn't get much out of her either. She just wanted to stand there no matter the pressure I put on her. I also had giving into the pressure on her flank.
Then I put the rope on her left front foot took to wraps with it on her girth and lifted her foot. She didn't give much of a struggle and went to her knees. I let her up and repeated two times. There was no hesitation on her going to her knees so I just held it and she laid right out for me. I have never had an easier horse to lay down. Then I kept her there for about 8 minutes and rubbed her all over. When I decided to let her up she just kind of sat up but didn't want to get up. I let her stay there for a few minutes and rubbed on her.
Then when she got up I did the Jeffrey's method a few times on each side.
Then I put the saddle on her. She stood for me to saddle no problem. Then when I moved her to my left to do LR 1 and 2 She gave a bit of a buck, but then straightened out. I had her trotting and cantering with it on.
Then I did some stirrup driving to see how she would handle that. She moved around quite a bit. I was on her left side. After a few tries she stood quiet. Then I did the other side and not hardly any movement.
Then I worked on getting on her up and down in the stirrup both sides. Then  leg over. I was acting like a drunk. She just stood there. Then I asked her to step forward. We did several small circles and YH and YF and just kept repeating that. She needs a lot of work on these on the Ground and then in the saddle before we go to much further. She doesn't YF good enough and that has to make a lot of improvement. I did this both sides. Then I started to straighten her out onto the rail and started getting a trot and then bend to a stop several times. We did this both sides. She doesn't give to the lead as well as I want either. She needs lots of flexing and follow the nose exercises. Then I asked for a canter and she gave me some good cantering and stopping.
So the YH and YF needs a lot of work but we got the first ride in of about 20 minutes or so.

Honey Bun day 7-Tuesday 8/25/15

Started out with leading behind in pasture not rd pen. She did great. There was a nice float in the line both sides. Then we did YH , flexing both were good. LR 1 was real nice with her eyes on me. There was two times which she looked at me and wanted to stop, she pinned her ears so I made her go on. Then when she was compliant. I did a YH AND stopped. 

YF started out bad on the left side. She kept going forward so I  made her back 20 feet or so and went back to YF. She soon got it and we switched to her 'bad' side. She did almost perfect for several steps. Standing quiet while I type this. 

Then we started doing the sending by letting her do a few laps then changing directions. She did ok but not as good as I wanted. 

Circling was good even her transitions. 

I got her in the rd pen and did that with him. Much better.

Jeffrey's method was good. She moved a bit, but I stayed with her. 

I flanked her out. Started on the left side. She bucked and bucked. After several laps of pressure and release she finally began to get the notion that if she slowed down and quit bucking she could relax. When her bucking stopped with the pressure I quit that side. 

Her right side was much better. Hardly a buck at all. But I couldn't get good forward motion either and when I did she didn't offer much of a buck. She just stopped. That is what I want, but I want to make sure she isn't just sandbagging me.

Then I wanted to finish with her following me at liberty. She walked off at first but then came right back in. I let her stand and rubbed her all over.

Honey Bun day 6 8/24/15

Rd pen- she did real good. I had her follow me several minutes after a bunch of change of directions. Then we did several figure 8's. I had her follow me again. It isn't right away that she follows, but she is getting quicker with her follow. 

YH-excellent 

Backup -also excellent though she did get flustered once and reared. I think I was backing too fast. She sometimes will want to go sideways but I just get her back on track. 

YF-much improved got 6-7 steps consistently. 

LR1/2-really good. The LR2was spot on. 

Flexing was excellent. 

Sending was much better and the circling was better. 

I noticed that the horses are calling to her more and that sets her off, but a little work at that point gets her mind right again. 

It has been real windy today so that has perked her up and made it challenging, but she is standing calm right now. 

Leading behind-best yet. Her right side (bad side) is fast becoming her good side. She was getting softer coming forward off the pressure. 

Plastic bag almost no irritation with it. 

Finished with the Jeffries method 3x each side. Nice and calm.Despite the wind and calling back and forth it has been a good session. 

Honey Bun Day 4,5

With all my grandkids here last night I didn't get a chance to post the blog from yesterday so here it is.
Day 4, Friday 8/21/15
Rd. Pen- did some downward pressure exercises. She did fine with those. She maintained consistent gaits and her turns were markedly improved, no hesitation. I allowed her to stop and rest and follow me. I had to go through a couple cycles of that before she started to hook on quicker. When I stop her I want her to immediately follow through as if she were changing directions and instead step forward and follow me.
YH- was real good.
Backups were good in all of them.
YF- Still could not get a couple good steps each way. She needs a lot of work on them.
Flexing was excellent.
LR1- This was real good too. She actually did good enough to achieve LR2 status which is that I only have to look at her Hindquarters and she yields it and gives me two eyes.
Circling was much improved in that she was bent more on the right side than before. She is improving over all on the right side. The Right was her bad side.
Sending needs more work. She gets real excited, I was able to calm her down by not being so exaggerated with the stick. Then I was able to close the gap more.
Leading beside needs some work especially on the right side.
Desensitizing with plastic bag was reasonable and so was the helicopter exercise.
She moved some but I got her calm after a few steps sideways. Then I quite her. I didn't work her at all on the way back to barn except to back her up the sand hill to it.


Day 5-Saturday 8/22/15
Rd pen- was pretty good. I still want her to hook on faster as I explained above. She actually stopped a couple times when I was asking her to change directions, I believe because she thought I was gonna relieve the pressure. So I had to keep driving her through the turn. She still has some hesitation and I have to walk a 1/2 circle or more until she hooks on and walks to me. I want to improve that so that she craves to be next to me. When she did hook on I let her stand next to me a good long while.
Did some slapping the ground with the string while she was standing still.
She stood fine for that.
YH-very good, 360 no problem.
Flexing was very light.
YF/shoulder- much better here. I could get 3 steps. She wants to backup more now. So I'll build off of that with my position so she doesn't back so much. She didn't swing her butt over or walk forward today.
LR1 was good and relaxed.
Sending was much improved. I actually worked a LR into the sending by having her go all the way around a couple times then asking for disengagement and sending her back through the other way. Once I did that a few times the sending was much more relaxed for her.
Her backups are getting real good. She is straightening up for me nice and I am even able to get some arcs in her in her backup preparing for some circles.
Circling was even better I was able to progress to transitions from one direction to the other with some fluidity.
She was so relaxed I decided to do some Jeffries method on her where I get on her bareback and lay on her and rub her all over. No problem.
The leading behind was better. Whereas before I had to pull on her now she is staying up with me better. Not so much heaviness and she is getting out of the way when I have her turn and she has to move her shoulder.
I got the plastic flag out and worked with that too. She moved some, but not as before. She is getting quieter.
That was it. She was also real relaxed taking detours back to the barn as I did more of the helicopter and used the flag behind me as she walked towards it.

Honey Bun Day 3

Thursday 8/20/15

Went to bring her in this morning and she didn't want to stand to halter. So we had a minion session of about 10 minutes of rd pen work. Wow, did she make huge improvement from yesterday. Her turns to the inside were quick. My German shepherd Prinz thought he needed to add to the situation so he was running around the outside of pen barking. I could tell HB was nervous with him so kept it up. She was really paying to him but when I asked for a turn it was Now. She also moved off real nice, no hesitation. I had her stop and follow then started to put halter on and she got pushy. She turned her shoulder into me and started to push toward me. I immediately sent her off at a canter and changed directions some more. Then she stood to be haltered. I led her back to the barn with leading behind, sending, and backing all the while Prinz is barking and running around trying to help. I was able to back her into her stall too. :)

Rd pen- had canter consistent 5x each direction then moved to 4,3,2,1 turning to inside each time. She does this well. Then to 3/4,1/2,1/4 time around with direction change. She did great. However she is still guarded with hooking on and staying next to me. She transitions fine. 

Started to move off and she wouldn't follow. She turned away and moved off so I drove her off. Had go around a couple times at canter, inside turn then the other way 2.5x inside turn and asked to follow. She did we circled to center. I moved again and she stayed with me. 

Desensitized-good

YH-real good. 360 2x each side. 

Backing real good on all

YF-not so good. I could only get a step or 2 each side. She is resistant and then either goes forward or swings backend toward me. We worked til we got some correct ones in a row. 

LR1-she has a good take off, stays t the trot. On the left side she is bent real nice toward me and responds quick to disengagement. On rt side she has good take off,consistent gait and is looking toward me better, not as good as left side. Responds just as good to disengagement. 

Flexing went good overall. She was s bit confused with the opposite side flexing. But worked out. I also added in poking the rib to move hind qrtrs. 

Circling was probably a good B or so. He stepped off nice stayed bent and consistent trot. Disengaged well. 

Sending was kind of spastic. I had a wide gap of 10 ft or so. She wanted to run through it. We got calmed down to where she trotted more relaxed through it. Worked about 10 minutes on that. 

LR2- was ok we did this on the way to the barn. So she showed her colors when she wants to do something other than I want. We also worked on leading behind. She was still distracted so it was somewhat of a energetic try. She did ok though. I know this will show up while riding when she wants to go to the barn. So I'll have to watch for that. 

It was like she thought she should take over. I will have start leaving time to really work her on the way back to the barn do that she works at the barn and rests away from it. 

Honey Bun day 2

Rd Pen- I let her trot in each direction 5x to warm her up. Then we got started. My goal was to consistently get her to turn in for 10 consecutive times. It wasn't too bad. It took about 10 minutes. Then I let her rest. then we went again for 10 more times and let her rest. I was looking for her to seek me out and follow me for her rest. The third time through she when I let her rest she really began to break free from guarding herself to actually stepping forward and following me. So we stopped with that. It was about 30 minutes or so and I let her get her air for 5 minutes or more. I noticed a marked improvement over yesterday in that her moving up into a trot or canter was much better. She kept the canter longer as well. I also noticed that she made improvement on her right side turning toward me. Whereas, yesterday she would take several steps before she turned in, she only took about 4 steps. Her moving her shoulders and going in the other direction also became snappier. 

When I let her rest she began to follow me even more. 

We moved on to the desensitizing which she took real well. 

Her Yield hindquarters got even better. I started with just one correct step and it wasn't but after three or four tries that we were able to do a 360 correctly. Both sides were pretty equal, but her right side was a little stickier this time. But she broke free of that. 

The backing exercises: tapping the air-she started a bit sluggish, but got good improvement. The wiggle/wave and marching she was really good in. The steady pressure even got so that I could just put my finger on the knot to back and she moved. 

Yield forequarters was a different story. She really had sticky feet here. She made me have to really tap her on the cheek before she moved her feet. I worked on just getting one good step consistently from both sides and then stopped. That took quite a while. I worked on this more as needed in the other movements. 

Lunge for respect had some challenges. She didn't want to move with just pointing so had to use some whacks in appropriate places to get her to move her shoulders and forward and around.I don't think she knew what I was asking at first.  But she finally got the hang of it. Her giving me two eyes made a good improvement over the course of the exercise. She began to move off with some pep in her step by the time we were done. 

Flexing was real good. She only had trouble with the poke and flex. She didn't know what that poking in her side was, but after several tries she got it. She seemed real soft to me in all the flexing. 

Sending was ok. I think I started a little too close to the fence so backed off a couple steps and then moved up. She needs much more work here with moving the shoulders and getting her butt out of the way. 

Circle driving once she would go forward went good. I especially was pleased with the left side. She was bent in and looking at me as she was waiting for instructions most of the time around. The right side she was more stiff. But she was still bent and a float in the line. Her keeping in gait improved as well. 

I noticed that she can be pushy, in almost unnoticeable ways, but I caught her on them and wouldn't let her get away with it. When she first begins she is a little lazy, but once she realizes she has to move she doesn't hesitate and doesn't throw a fit. I will watch for those subtle details though. 

She still is guarded around me but I think that will greatly improve. 

I did lunging for respect 2 on the way back to the barn. She was probably not a C grade on the moving her butt and giving me two eyes as good as I want, but she moved off good when I sent her. We backed from the fence to the barn up hill in the sand. She didn't much like that, but with more practice she will get better. 

I have been doing the leading behind and the desensitizing-helicopter, slapping etc. throughout the session. 

I also introduced the plastic flag on a stick to her. She was a bit flustered at first but soon settled down. 

I think it was a good session with some marked improvement. 

HoneyBun day 1

Day 1-tuesday 8/18/15 

I got her in the red pen and let her get acclimated. The I trotted her both directions 5x. Then we got started.  I started asking for turn to inside it took her a few tries but she began to get it. She was easier on the left side. Very much more lazy to respond on the right side. It was very hot so after 10 minutes I gave her a rest for 5 min. Then started again and she really began to respond better from both sides. After 30 minutes she was keeping both eyes on me and beginning to follow me. I took advantage and desensitized her to stick and string. Then I put halter on her and desensitized more. 

I began to work on yield hindquarters. It didn't take long to catch on. She was easier with this on the left side. I was able to get two steps consistently. 

We moved on to backing. She was sluggish with tapping the air so we worked on that mostly. The wiggle wave whack and marching she backed real well. With the lead she was not too bad. She definitely has room for improvement. 

I needed to walk her around the whole area so I did s combination of leading behind and lunging for respect. She needs a lot of work, but she will improve.