Camina 16

I had a real good session with her today. She took the saddle nicely, then we worked on flexing. I found that she doesn't need to be flexed overly much. She, in a sense, says, 'enough already, let's move on.' So that is what we did. I flexed only a couple times each side today and moved on. Then we did some disengaging from the drive line (where I am walking next to the saddle and then disengaging a 360 degrees and then moving forward). We did this a couple times in each direction. I then put her on the long line and circled her 10 minutes in each direction working for an overall softness and carriage and frame. She moved into canter and back to trot and walk nice and easy. Then I ground drove her about 10 minutes working on stopping and direction change, backup, disengaging. In the bit I was looking for a softness to my hands on the rein so that she would yield fluidly to my direction through my hands. She is doing much better on the bit. The last 10 minutes of our session I road her around the arena just getting her to move forward and doing direction changes and disengaging. I flexed her again the start and finish of the ride. It was so hot in the arena today that we were both pretty sweaty by the time we were done. I look forward to our next session.

Camina 15

Just back about an hour ago from Cheerio. I had a good session with Camina. She acted up slightly while I was getting ready to saddle her. So I just corrected her to get her to stand. After saddling I moved her on a circle at a walk for a few minutes then went to flexing her which she does really good. After 5 times, though, she gets bored and needs to change it up so I do the other side. Same thing, after 5 x it's like, 'come on enough already' so we move on. Then I did the falling leaf down the arena and back. This time I used her web halter and light lunge line and put her on a 50' circle at a trot. I had to keep moving her shoulder out, because she kept falling in toward the middle but she finally settled into a nice easy trot. A few times she acted up so she got to canter until she settled down. But today, no bucking at all. I was trying to get her to keep her ear on me all the way around and not fall toward the middle. I also wanted her head carried lower. I then got her going in the other direction and did the same thing. I moved her from a trot to canter a few times and back down and she was nice and relaxed doing that. I know that I did this about 20 minutes with her. I had 15 minutes left to ground drive her so that is what we finished with. She is accepting the bit more and is responding real light to flexing with the rein. Then we started off and again went through stops, turns, backups, leg yields disengaging on a circle and even moving the shoulders. For this I use the wall and have her do a roll back, sort of. Because she is so close to the wall she has to set back on her butt and lift her front end to swing her legs around to get by the wall. Hence, that works real good to help her with this so I can be real light on the bit.
So I brought her back to the beginning and practiced taking the bridle on and off with her head low and calm. Then we quit.

Camina 14

I thought I had better get this posted before I go in for another workout with her. Yesterday, we had a good session. She had an attitude of disrespect that had to be worked through even as I saddled her. That was solved by making her move her feet backwards. Then I started to flex her laterally, bu there was some tightness in her so I decided to have her do circles and then do the falling leaf exercise up and down the arena 2x. Then we went back to lateral flexion and she was much better. She is really light when I ask her for this.
Next, we went to the lunge line and had her move out in transitions from walk to trot. However, her energy spilled over and she wanted to canter and buck so I made her canter and wouldn't let her stop for several laps then when she relaxed a little a I brought her down to a trot. She must have trotted for 10 to 15 minutes before she was consistently in a nice cadence with her head starting to lower and her ear and head cocked toward me. I slowed her to a walk and changed directions and moved her up to a trot again going to the right. She moved much sooner into nice cadence. I asked her to canter and there was no buck at all so we slowed to a trot again. I did this transition a couple times and each time she was relaxed. I didn't trot her near as long in this direction because she relaxed much quicker. However, I am not so sure that just lunging her for this length of time really does alot of good except get her into better shape. The purpose of it is to get her to learn to stay on the same track of the circle with body framed on the arch of the circle and her hip a little to the outside. Having thought about the purpose of it maybe it is a good idea. This is one of tasks that I will do under saddle too. I think today I will try it with a different lunge line and halter and see what kind of result I get.
Anyway, back to our workout. At this point we had been working about 50 minutes or so. I wanted to bridle her and ground drive her again. She is getting much better about carrying the bit and the ground driving worked out great. I asked her to do several direction changes which she followed lightly for the most part. She actually moved out with much more energy.  I used the wall a couple times when we were stopped against it to have her turn into the wall and mover her shoulders over which she did very naturally, without much contact on the rein. I had her leg yielding several times to the left, which she does nicely. However, going to the right doesn't work out as well. After doing this several times and going around the arena with several stops, we quit for the day.

Camina 13

Today was interesting with her. I got her saddled, knowing it would be a little different as her friend, Buddy, was in the arena being worked too. I thought this was a good idea since she needs to have those other kinds of stimulation while being worked herself. We started with flexing but she was paying more attention to Buddy than me so I had her work on circles and then had her do the falling leaf exercise, moved into leg yields away from me on the wall and then into disengaging and moving her shoulders over, etc. After about 20 minutes of this I put her on the long line and had her begin to circle me. I wanted her to get into a steady rythmic trot with her head carried down and to the inside. However, it was at about this time Buddy left the arena and things fell apart from their for a while. She didn't like that Buddy left and when I asked her to keep at the trot on the circle she decided to pitch a fit and start bucking, to which, I kept her moving faster until she settled down. I debated about whether to disengage her and stop the bucking but I thought it would be better to make her go faster and show her that bucking is going to get her anywhere. She settled into a nice canter but it was too fast and not relaxed at all, but I made her keep it up for about 5 minutes, then asked her to trot and see if that would settle her down some more. However, one of the horses whinnied and she started her bucking fit again, but this time it was only a couple of times and she went to cantering again. So I just kept her at it. Then I let her slow to a trot. I was looking for her to relax and her cadence to be consistent so we did this for a good while. When she finally settled down I slowed her to a stop and let her rest for a second then sent her in the other direction doing the same thing. She went into a canter but it was not relaxed at all so I kept that up til she settled down then asked her to trot and do the same thing. She finally lowered her head and started carrying it more to the inside which makes her more balanced because it makes her lift the inside shoulder and she will stay on the circle more. When she did this, and she was in a good sweat, I changed things by putting the bridle on her and long reins and ground drove around for about 10 minutes. She did really well at this changing in directions with slight feel on the rein and even had her stopping consistently and leg yielding to the left. She had a hard time going to the right on a leg yield but we did get one or two steps periodically. At the end I stood in place and had her leg yield in a half circle to the left and then quit. I didn't ride her today as she was in a different frame of mind, so the sense of self preservation ruled over stupidity and we called it a day. But we still had a very good workout that began calm and ended calm with some rough spots in between.

Back to Raven

I had a beautiful afternoon to work with Raven. We started just doing some review of my tasks from Reis. We did ground and rd pen tasks at the mentor (3) and Horsemans (4) levels. She remembered quite a bit as did I. We have some work to do with ground driving but that will quickly shape up as I work with her more. Then I worked under saddle with her just trying to use my legs/seat and no rein for direction changes and stops. That worked pretty good. I started to pick up collection on her and work on holding it out. I think we worked on things close to an hour and then we went down the road and trail by my house. She collected up real easy and I had her doing circles and stops and leg yields and so on. She did real well.
It was a good afternoon with her.

Camina 12

Today was not unlike the other days. Camina was calm and receptive to my 'feel'. She was saddled and went right to work on flexion which is like not even ounces of pressure to get her flex. Then I had her disengaging and moving her shoulders with no problem. Then I took her down the wall and did it.
I had had her lunging lightly down the arena and then did the falling leaf on the way back. I put the long line on her and worked on walk>trot>canter transitions in both directions. She is following my feel pretty good. She will improve with time. Then I had her on the long reins and ground drove her. She is still mouthing the bit alot  but it is getting better. I just use real light pressure on the rein to get her to change direction and to stop and back up. All of this took maybe 45 minutes. Then I got on her and flexed her and had her walking around quite a bit then would disengage her. I started introducing moving her shoulders over too as soon as I disengage her. She did it a couple times going to the left, but not to the right. We will continue to work on that. I want her to be able to do the disengaging and moving her shoulders over, stop and back up at the walk real consistent before I ask her to trot. She sometimes acts like she doesn't know where her feet are and gets them a little tangled up, especially with me on her back. But she did well today, as usual.
I was able to work Raven a bit today too. I wanted to really work on leg control so after working her on the ground I got on and just walked her around with no rein contact. I let it hang over my saddle horn, crossed my arms and just used my legs to direct her movement. She is responding nicely to that. Then I would stop and back her using my seat and legs, daring her to make me use a rein. I had to a couple times, but after 20 minutes or so she was doing much better. Then I had her trot doing the same thing and then canter. I could direct her and stop her and back up without using the rein most of the time. In fact, I only had to use the rein to stop and back her once or twice in the beginning. I also have been working on collection and then moving the hips into the bend to do a true side pass. So I have used the rail to stop the forward motion. We worked on this in both directions several times and then walked off and then came back to the rail and worked on it again. I am able to 2-3 steps moving into the bend with collection so we quit with that. Hopefully, we will build off of that. My goal is to get her to do a haunches in with forward motion so I am starting with the side pass exercise. The other way I have been shown doesn't seem to work for me and I am sure it is some little detail I am not including. Anyway, we were both calm when we finished and had a good ride.

camina 11

It was another good day at Cheerio with Camina. She had a lot of distractions this morning with people watching. But we got right to work on the saddling and flexing. We then did some more warmup with lunging at a walk and switching directions. I took her over to the wall and did the sending exercise several times then we walked the rail and worked on disengaging and sending. After a few minutes of this we did the c-pattern/falling leaf exercise down the middle of the arena. I put the long line on her and had her doing walk, trot transitions in both directions. Then we moved up to canter. What I am looking for in her is a softness in her transitions from walk>trot>canter and back down. My goal wasn't to get her tired out but to have her really paying attention to me to see what I will ask her next. She did very well at this. So we got the bridle on her and had her flex laterally then put the long reins on her and ground drove her around the arena. She is not mouthing the bit nearly as much as she did yesterday. She is carrying it much better. We did some starts and stops and direction changes all around. This went well so I took the long reins off her and got on. I flexed her first and then had her move off at a walk then would bend her to a stop and disengagement. We did this in both directions. She did very well and is getting better at carrying me. I was pleased. She has a calmness about her that seems to show that she is mentally handling things well. I rode her around the arena and stopped her several times then dismounted and quit for the day.