Day 4 of cc

Well I went out this evening hoping to put an hour in. And guess what? I did. It is amazing what one day made. In rd pen I gave him an A+ and high grades in everything else. What the difference was me mostly. I learned some things about how do the exercises and that helped him to do better. Because he did much better I didn't have to keep working on things. So I could cover everything faster. I guarantee I have two eyes on me now. To begin the lesson he went to work with me. What I mean is he followed me freely into the pen, no lead rope connecting us. The rd pen is our wk space. So he went to wk with me. I knew it was going to be good lesson. It was great. Tomorrow I hope to go through everything then try the saddle.

Day 3 of cc

Ok, I would give myself a C or C+ on my evaluation of C's exercises. I watched Clinton evaluate a person with their horse on Round penning and yeilding hindquarters and saw some of the things I do. So learning from that I went out with C to work on those things. He started out good in round penning then fell apart then got him back. He knows to turn in, but I was trying to refine him more and get him to turn in quicker. That is when it fell apart. He is so sensitive I have to watch how much pressure I put on him. But we got it back and with a few good tries in both directions he got a 25 minute rest to get his air back. He still wasn't real caught up, but we had to move on. He does well at desensitizing. I need to balance that with sensitizing. Our work on YH 1 & 2 I think he was better than yesterday, but still not an 'A' yet. He backs well with all four methods, just needs work on backing straight. Yield forequarters was about a C but we are moving up on that. all the others he seems to be settling down and doing pretty good at. He is getting soft in flexing really with lightness. Circle driving and lunge for respect 1 and 2 I think are real good. Leading beside needs improvement. The fundamental desensitizing is doing real good. Some exercises he does real well others he is not so good. He may get tomorrow off, if not it will be tuesday before he gets a day off as that is a real busy one for me. I am anxious to see how he does with the saddle, but I really am beginning to think it is just that he is so sensitive and not at all the saddle. We will see though.

Day 2 of CC

Just got in from working with C in the rain. I don't think he minded, I certainly didn't. It kept us both cooler. Although, he looked like he had been drenched when we finished. We scooted through all 13 GW exercises. He did well in some and not so good in others and I suspect it was mostly me that didn't do well. There is so much to reading a horse and paying attention to details. For example, I was doing the sending exercise where you point high in the direction you want him to go with one hand and with the other use the stick to the help him move. He is going between me and the fence, starting about 20 feet out and gradually getting closer as he gets calmer. When his tail passes in front of me, as I look at the fence, I ask for a disengagement switch hands and the when he gives me two eyes let him rest while I rub him with the end of the stick. Well he would race through in one direction and kind of walk in the other. Then I realized I was putting too much pressure on him with the stick. I had to get it to the point where I barely moved my stick arm and he would move. So that was good. But then he kept racing in the other direction which is another side to a horse. So I took him to another location of the fence and he started getting worse. So instead of stopping when he gave me two eyes I kept him changing directions and lo and behold, he started to settle down. Now what I was after was him hopping his shoulder over while planting his hindquarters and he started doing that I quit using the stick and just let him follow my feel of the lead to ask for a disengagement, shoulders over and go forward. In this way I was able to send him beween me and the fence and move to within 4 feet of it. He was relaxed at this so we went on to the next exercises.. Circle driving and leading beside went well. He improved over yesterdays exercises and so have I. I learned that he doesn't need alot of encouragement to move. He is backing well, flexing is a little stiff unless I use the poke method and then he bends nicely without a poke. The desensitizing is getting real good. I can swing the stick and string and lead all over him as well as around him and he stands pretty good. My plan is to go through all the exercises again tomorrow and then we move out to the big arena and power line to start using obstacles with the exercises. It ought to be real interesting.

Day 1 of Crash course

Caesar and I had a good lesson as far as I am concerned. I started right with round pen work. He started right off at a canter when I pointed and gave me inside turns like I asked. After about 15 minutes we started doing figure eights and he was not the least bit hesitant. I also had him following me. However, he didn't like me on the left side which is the side we normally mount on. He struck out at me with his left front foot when I tried to keep him on that side. So guess what? We stayed working on the left side until he would let me stay on that side without trying to block me. We went right through all the steps in the fundamentals gw through the lunging for stage 1 that was number seven out of 13 steps. He did well at the backup in all four methods. We kinda fell apart on yielding the hindquarters on the right side, but he will get better. It is more me than him. He did pretty good on yielding the forequarters. I will review these all tomorrow, hopefully a little faster and move on to the rest of the gw exercises. Today's lesson took about 2 hours but that was fine with me. This is a crash course as I only have two weeks to figure out and deal with his bucking problem. The left side issue mentioned earlier was either attitude or I was acting like a predator. But I think it was attitude and after working on that side for a time he got better but he still tries to block me some. This might be part of his bucking problem, his unwillingness to totally yield to me on that side. So I know that about him now and will work accordingly. When we were finished I had him follow me around for a few minutes and then rubbed on him. I left him in the pen for about an hour and then gave him access to his food and water.

Caesar again

Well I get the chance for a partial do over with C. I picked him up today thanks to Judy C. Who loaned me her trailer. What I was ready for but hoped wasn't needed was a trailer loading lesson. He did edge up to the trailer but would not go in. So I took him in hand and made him want to be near the horse trailer. After almost an hour he would put both feet in but not go all the way. So as Judy suggested I took a little walk away from the trailer and just let him rest a bit. Then went back at it. this time I walked inthe trailer wondering if he would follow me. He got as far as the door and stopped with his head inside. I asked and he put a foot up. Then with a little compulsion from behind he soon had both feet then all four. Because I needed to get him home and taken care of before church I closed him in finished loading up and headed for home. I would have normally let him stay in there a good while, backed him out, worked him and then put him back in there. But, pressed for time I couldn't do that. Tomorrow starts his training review going back through the fundamentals to get him to stop bucking when asked to lunge under saddle. He only does it when he is asked to go in a circle in gw. I think it is a respect issue. So I am going to try to find out what it is and help him through it.

Jake

Oh what a beautiful day to spend some time with a horse. I got Jake out today. We worked our way back to my riding area. Did some backing sidepass inc, cpattern, got him saddled and went to work. I also had Prinz laying down by the trailer while I worked with Jake. He is getting better. I only had to set him back down a few times. Consistency is the key and taking the time to do it.
Jake did well, even after not being worked for 3 weeks or so. I had him jumping over some logs on the long line then worked on backing him in circles. I then started to have him back between the logs. He did pretty good. I desensitized him to my bull whip and cracked that around him a bunch of times. I got on and did the same thing with the whip. We walked and trotted some. He is a little gimpy in his right front leg but could find no swelling, tenderness in his sole or frog or his joints. I think maybe he is getting old and his joints are like mine. I think some glucosamine is in order for both of us. We took a ride over to the creek and the salmon were still there. He went in the water pretty readily. Then we came home. It was a good ride.

What a gorgeous day

I had to get out and ride today. It was almost 80 degrees here. I got Raven out and worked her back to my house. Now I always do ground work on my way down my drive so that by the time I get to the saddle she is warmed up and I can tell if she is with me on this. I also get an opportunity to work with Prinz, my German Shepherd. I am teaching him manners around horses. I make him sit by my little trailer while I finish ground work, then when I start riding I let him follow, but he has to behave, no barking and jumping around the horses.
I have a 300' x 300' area I ride around the perimeter now so after some ground work, we took off on a nice walk for a lap, then trotted (cruising). We did three laps in each direction. She has to maintain her gait and if she speeds up or slows down I take the corrective action and put her back in a trot. Then we did the same with a canter. Then I started to ask for collection and bending in a circle. She was really worked up so we took a walk out on our power line to the road and back. I stopped by a creek behind our school to see if she would go down into that. It has short drop off kind of banks and flows pretty good. While I was letting her get used to the idea of stepping down into the water I noticed two pretty big salmon trying to get beyond a bunch of branches in the water to go upstream, I am assuming to spawn. I could have scooped them up with my hands. I didn't. I just watched them wiggle their tails back and forth keeping in one place. Hopefully, they will make it. Anyway, we then went into the water and back out and headed back to the house. It was a good ride.