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. 

Joey

I have been working with the Joey the last 3 days. He is a paint/pinto horse. He is 21 and his owner wanted me to work with him for a few days to get him to the point of riding. The first night I had him I worked in the round pen. He did pretty good. He is way overweight and the dust was like a cloud in there so I had to tone it down some.
The Second day I rode him in the pen. Walk, trot, Canter, did some light ground work, checked him out with the saddle. He is a butter ball to be sure. When I rode him I had to be careful the saddle didn't rotate with the fat on him. No lie!. He moved his hindquarters, and his shoulders. He has a back up and one rein stop. He likes to stop. Ha! Ha!.
Today, I rode him in the round pen. I decided to work with him from a mounting step. I finally got him to step up to that so I could get on. The saddle doesn't rotate as much.
I did this a couple times. Then I rode him in the larger arena doing the cruising lesson just trying to keep him in a trot and to direct him. We also did some bending exercises and yield hindquarters on the rail. I really have to keep after him to go so the cruising lesson was pretty good for him. He kept wanting to go back in the rd pen so I let him and then worked him really hard. He did this twice then he wanted nothing to do with the rd pen. LOL. I took him out in the big pasture and really had no trouble there either. He needs some coaxing to get up to canter, but if I let him work into it he transitions smoothly. He has a real nice trot and lope. He just is dull to the rein directionally. He kept wanting to go to the gate to the barn so I let him go and then worked him real hard again and walked him away to the shade and let him stand, no problem there. I had to do this 3x before going to the gate didn't sound like a good idea to him. This is easier than fighting him.
He just needs a bunch of riding to get him into shape and he will continue to be a nice ride.

barn

Well, the barn project has started, in a Siberian style winter of all things. I built my house in the winter and remember saying I will not do that again. So much for good memory. Hmmph.  Anyway we got the stakes in the ground for the corners and for the placement of the posts. The delivery guy got his truck stuck a couple times but finally made the delivery. One more delivery I think and will have most of materials. I will keep things posted. Pictures in the next post.

getting itchy

I am getting the itch to get out with my horses. I need my horse fix. Problem is that the warm weather has made everything to icy. The snow is about a foot or more with a thick ice crust. So I will have to be satisfied with feeding and watering and a little attention that way. For those who are interested I won't hear about the contest result til the end of the month. I submitted my video and can only hope that I do get picked. If not, it was still a good experience and showed me some areas of needed work. I am getting anxious to get moved on to the advanced series too.
Have a good day all.

Intermediate test

Well, I finally did it. I have been working on the exercises in the Clinton Anderson Intermediate series for the last couple months. Then I heard about an application that I could send in to Down Under Horsemanship and have an opportunity to be selected to come to Texas and have Clinton critique me. So I did the video yesterday with the help of my son, Josh,  and his wife, Rachel. She is the videographer here. The came up from Mobile Alabama and were not really dressed for this kinda cold. Nevertheless, they stuck it out and put this video together for me. Josh 99% of the editing here. Thanks to both of them. This wouldn't have happened without them. I have to thank Judy for spurring me on here too. If not for her encouragement I would not have done it..
here is the link, hope you enjoy. http://youtu.be/x0kBYq2kExw

Test

Today was Jake's day to workout with me. I wanted to try to go through as many of the intermediate exercises that I could do with him. There are 34 of them. So we got off to a calm start. I went through all of the ground work exercises. Some of them he needs work on, but he could do them. The last one which is bridle bending is the one that we need the most work on. That is where I use the rein and have him circle me while I bend his nose down and walk him around me. He is supposed to be bent around me and get soft with his poll lower than his withers while moving forward on the circle. He is real good at this on the right side, but the left side is much stiffer. Once he does that softly then I am to move his shoulder over while he is soft and bent. So his shoulder moves away from me. We didn't do this part because we were just starting to work on the bending. I will probably do that tomorrow with him. The last part of that is to YH and then back him up. He will do that with softness. Anyway by the time I got to that exercise we had already worked an hour. Then it was time to ride him. I was able to get through the first 12 exercises of the 17 in the riding section and that was not going through them with a lot of work on each one. He clearly needs more work. By the time we got to this point were we were doing some serpentines we had been riding for an hour. So that was a two hour workout with him. I had planned on working with him then moving on to Raven. But not enough time. I worked with Raven yesterday getting as far as I could. She does well too. I think Jake is better in some things than Raven.
I am planning on applying for a spot on Clinton Anderson's program to go to his ranch and have him work with me on the intermediate exercises. I have to make a video of me going through all 34 exercises in the level and then send that in. He will pick several people to come to his ranch for that purpose. So I am going to give it a shot.
That means I gotta get this down.