Honey Bun day 17-Saturday 9/5/15

Today I didn't bother trying to saddle first. Instead, I went right into the GW to see where she was at on all of them. The ones she really needs more work are the Flexion-She now has taken to want to YH instead of stand for the flexing. So we had to work through that. Her YH is very good. Her back ups in all styles are real good. She could put some more energy into them, but she knows what is being asked. her LR 1,2 are excellent as is her Circling and sending. She went over the platform without hesitation. She stands real quiet with the desensitizing.
In the riding part of it, I did the flexing and again she didn't want to just stand and flex. She kept YH which on the one hand is good, but not when I am not asking for that. So I had to work through that with her. Then I did the cruising for 10 minutes at the trot. She didn't try to slow down much and only moved into a canter once. I gave her a rest then went into one rein stops. She has been very heavy on this. So I wanted to work towards getting her real soft. I think she made some good improvement and didn't want to keep walking after she stopped her feet and was soft. We went through this several times and then moved up to a canter. My goal here was to have canter 5 laps of the arena in each direction without slowing. She did fine in the right lead, but her left lead she didn't want to keep going. So I had to use my Mecate a few times and then she didn't try to slow down. So she was just getting lazy there. She doesn't like to go into the left lead. Then  let her rest and went to yielding Hindquarters at a standstill. She is catching on to this. After that we went through some bending exercises at the walk to help her cool down and did some flexing at a standstill too. Then I put her up .

Honey Bun day 16-Friday 9/4/15

I had her owner over to show her where she was at in her training. I had a bit of a dust up with Honey when I tried to saddle her and she didn't want to stand. The saddle fell off when she kept trying to back up. I should have quit the saddling and did some GW and then went back to saddling. However, I did not do that. So when the saddle fell off I left it lie and backed her up about fifty feet and did a bunch of changing of directions while lunging. Then went back to saddle her and she stood fine. Then I went through all the GW exercises for her owner. She did pretty good. I wouldn't say that she passed with flying colors but she did fine. Then I rode her for the last half of the session. I went through cruising, follow the fence, a bit of diagonal. I mainly wanted to work on her YH because she has been real heavy. So I worked her several times until I started to feel some softness coming through then went on to walk, trot and canter her. she did real good most of the time. I think her owner is quite pleased with how things are progressing.

Honey Bun day 15- Thursday 9/3/15

I started her with LR 1&2 because she was wanting to move out. I then got her set up for ground driving again. I had her go around the arena 1x in each direction then down the center. I set up some cones to use as markers to  go around and weave in and out of. She is so quiet and good at this. She needs some steering, but her yielding to the bit is pretty darn good. I did this about 20 minutes or so. Then I saddled her and did some bridle bending with backup. I got on and flexed her. She needs more work here because while she flexes nice, she has a tendency to stay there and not want to soften to the other side. So today I really started getting after her with that. Then we moved out. I always try to start with a yielding of the shoulder in the direction I want to go and she is starting to get it. She wanted to move up to a trot right away so I accommodated her and for the next 10 minutes we did the cruising exercise in both directions. Then I gave her a good 5 minutes to catch her breath and cool down a bit. I flexed in there a few times too. Then we started to do the one rein stop. She is very dull on this. She moves her Hindquarters over easy, but is very stiff on the flexion part of it. So I worked on this ten times each side. I need to keep working on that in increments because I want her real soft to this before I give her back to her owner. Then I started to do follow the fence at a trot and canter in each direction. It took a few laps in each direction before she started to get the concept. Once she seemed to get it I let her rest a bit. When we started again she kept wanting to go back into the rd pen. So I let her and then really worked her, cantering in both directions, one rein stops with YH a bunch of times, even started doing some roll backs. Then I went back to the arena and left her alone in her trot. She went back to the rd pen and we did the same thing. Three times she went back to the pen and finally she didn't want to go back there again so I didn't make her. We finished off with some bending around the cones at a walk. Then I got off and walked her around on my track and let her graze a bit to cool off. She did another amazing bit. 

I need to really work on her lateral flexion, her one rein stops and follow her nose kind of exercises next time. 

Honey Bun day 14- Wednesday 9/2/15

What a good session today. I started out by reviewing ground driving from yesterday. I adjusted the bridle and that took care of the head tossing. I took her out into the big arena and drove her around for about 30 minutes. She did well. I saddled her and rode for about 40 minutes. I did the bridle bending and then cruising lesson. I did this at the trot and then after a 5 minute rest I did it at the canter. I finished with bend and around trying to collect her. 

Honey Bun day 13- Tuesday 9/1/15

Today I put the surcingle on her. I put her in rd pen and went through the process of teaching her to ground drive. She did very well. No panicking with rein around her hind legs or butt. I found out that her throwing her head while cantering was her getting used to the bit and rein pressure, because she did the same thing at this time. By the time we were finished though she had quit that. She was getting real light. Stopping fine. Her turns inside and out were good. I took her out in the big arena and she did real nice there. She was relaxed with her head down and responding nicely. I didn't ride her today because I already took an hour and we were both too hot. A very good session though. 

Honey Bun day 12- Sunday 8/30/15

She did a great job of being used as an illustration for my sermon. She was not uptight at all. I thought she would be. During the course of the event we went through most all of the exercises and did well. I introduced an umbrella, plastic garbage bag, noise bag, and she handled them quite well, but not without some anxiousness. I had her step on and over a cardboard box that was flattened. Not a real problem for her. There were all kinds of noises that could have disturbed her, but didn't: clapping, cars, motorcycles, barking of dogs , screeching of sound system. I even rode her without any issues. Then I ended with laying her down. She was good with that and used it to her advantage to eat grass while she was lying down. 

Honey Bun day 11 - Saturday 8/29/15

We started out with saddling then we walked out to the pasture and I started working on getting her to do the LR one and two. She did fine at these I also did the sending exercise. We went to the platform and I started to ask her to go over that she did pretty good on that. I had her go over the platform three times on each side real nice and relaxed. Then I had her go over the log by lunging. When she was good at the one log I added another log a few feet farther. When she was good at going over both of those in either direction I took her into the riding arena and backed her and did yield hindquarters and yield the fore quarters. We went into the round pen and I introduced my plastic noise bag with bottles and cans in it. I desensitize her to that and she did pretty good. When I put it up by her ears she really got bothered so I kept it up until she calm down. I was bouncing that bag all over her body making all kinds of noise and she did pretty good just standing there. Then I put the Bridle on and  did some bridle

bending. Here I had her go forward and bend around me using the rein picking up the appropriate foot and when she was bending nice then I would disengage the hindquarters and ask for a back up. She did great. Then it was time to get on. I wanted to work on inside and outside turns and one rein stops. I did everything I could to act like a drunk, flopping my hands, making popping noises with my mouth, moving my legs all over her body and she did just fine. I had her walking and trotting and cantering no problem. So then for the last five minutes or 10 minutes I took her in the big arena and we rode around in there. I got off her in the big arena and we quit. She did a good job.