Thursday Evening's Groundwork and Ride!

This afternoon I did get to ride. Rachel was in need of being occupied so I took her for a ride. I got on and then she hopped on Navajo behind me. We walked around the yard for a while and then I told her to get off and I would go ride Navajo. So I took him behind the barn. Well let's just say that today wasn't the best day. But I have told myself from now on that no matter how bad the ride I am always going to find at least THREE GOOD THINGS about the ride. Ok so now Navajo didn't want to do anything but walk and kept putting his head down. I told him to back (we actually did more backing than forward walking or so it seemed:D) and eventually he got to the point he realized that he met his match in being stubborn :) Anyway he did get it that if he put his head down he had to back up. The first good thing is he got better at backing and also curving his head. The second thing is that he did very good was move his forquarters! Then the third good thing would be we had one canter and he did really good with that as well!! So over all it would be a good ride. I ended the ride by getting him to follow me. I walked a ways ahead and said WHOA in a loud voice. He stopped in his hoofsteps :D I was very happy. He has been doing this for a while now and it makes me quite happy. Then I saw how much he would follow me and he did really well. I had to go with my mom to do some wallpaper and paint shopping then I got home and I went out and groomed Navajo and did some more groundwork:) I got him to walk beside me moving my shoulder forward and clucking and pulling on the leadrope. He caught on really well toward the end. The stopping is going to need some work but I think he will get it eventually. Hope everyone had a wonderful day!