July 16 & 17, 2018

I have two training sessions I want to tell you about. By the way, the weather has been hot, but it has still been good to train.

July 16, 2018

The temperature was really hot and humid even after work on Monday, so I decided to just work and play with Shine from the ground. I brushed him off and sprayed him with fly spray like normal then led him to the round pen. I could tell he had a lot of energy and after I had him moving that was apparent in his graceful cantering. When cantering to the left he still has a tendency to be slightly out of phase and his rear legs come down in the wrong order, like his back feet are on the opposite lead which is probably why it doesn’t feel as smooth when I ride him in the center to the left. The right, however, is super graceful both to watch and ride. Well, after a little playing which included having him stop and go the other way a few times, after chasing him some and then having him follow me, and after I called him and he came right over… I decided to do some freedom riding. That’s right, no pad and no reins. I had him follow me over to the fence and at first he was a little too far away from it, but when I reset him I mounted easily. Then I did some trotting, kind of weird how much different it feels to not have the reins in my hand. I even got him to easily stop without the aid of the reins, but backing up was a different story. Though he realized I didn’t want him to continue forward when I gave him the backup cue, he didn’t realize I wanted him to backup either. I felt completely comfortable and not like he would just take me away at any point. It was a fun time!

July 17, 2018

The temperature was hot, but a very nice breeze. Today was a great training session with Shine. I tacked him up western and mounted at the hitching post like normal. Then I rode Shine down to the round pen by the corner. I worked some on asking him to back up without using the reins, starting with the leg/seat cues, the following with the rein cues when he didn't immediately understand. After working on that and some other things I got him to understand and take 2 tentative steps back, so I will continue to work on that till he is confident. Worked on cantering in small circles as well, still need to work more on cantering smaller circles to the left. When I was done working Shine I rode him along the front of the property inside the fence. When we got around to the cutting arena, Shine was suddenly not listening to me and then suddenly pivoted 180 degrees. It was startled, but I didn’t feel like he was completely out of control. I couldn’t easily get him stopped by telling him to whoa, so I pulled on the right rein and he did a sidepass and stopped. I turned him back toward whatever he had seen, but again I lost his focus. I couldn’t get him to keep listening to me, so I dismounted and worked him in that general area for a few minutes. He had more cantering pent up, so I got that out as well. Then we walked a few feet past that point and I was able to mount and have his attention. When we got back to the hitching post, I stopped him in the shade of a tree and we stood there for about 2 minutes. He only once tried to reach around and grab the rein in his mouth. That’s really good! He mostly stood calmly, his head forward. Lynn drove by on the gator, “Nice having a broke horse, isn’t it?” He apparently hadn't seen the recent training episode down by the cutting arena. ;-)