Tuesday's Ride and Beauty's Training Session!!

Wow..I thought yesterday's training went well today went even better. First I groomed her and she stood quite well with that. I didn't pick her hooves because I wanted  to wait to do that till after I joined up with her. I decided to do the join up inside the pen and all the other things I had planned. I sent Beauty in a circle (didn't have the lunge line today) and she did quite well. I lunged her both ways with a few changes in directions. She is definitely getting the hang of what I want to do. Once I saw her turning her ears toward me and showing signs of wanting to be with me I stopped her and turned my back and ignored her. I have found she HATES to be ignored and LOVES to be with you. Well she came up to me. And in the one book I read about joining up it said it is extra special if you walk in a circle as though you are walking toward the horses but and they keep their face toward you. You do it both ways..That is what I did with Beauty and she did perfectly. I was so happy!!

Well since she did wonderful with the first exercise I then got out the flyspray bottle with water in it. Today it didn't take even half of the bottle of water (yesterday it took most of it). She did so well with not moving much when I sprayed her body that I started to spray her legs and stomache. She did wonderful. I was very pleased with the results. I know she is very smart and it doesn't take her long to figure things out =) I don't think we should have a problem with flyspray after a bit.

I was so pleased with how quickly she got done with the flyspray that I was like ok now we will work with your hooves. That went well as well. Her left back hoof she did not want to let me hold. She kept wanting to kick with it. She did that a few times and realized that I don't tolerate that so she let me hold it nicely. Then we went around and did it again. The second time around she did great and I was very pleased with her!Once we had done her hooves I got her to move her hindquarters and forquarters. We didn't do much with that but she did pretty well with that. Then I tied her up and went and got Navajo.

So I went and got Navajo and we rode down the strip. Before we went too far I stopped him which he did very well and moved his hindquarters both ways. We haven't done it for a while but he did great with it!! Then I did his forquarters as well. So off we went after we did those two things. We didn't trot till we turned the corner to head toward the road. I have decided that we will ride on the road quite a bit because Navajo seems to really enjoy that! So off down the road we went. We went a bit farther today than we ever have gone so far. I know I feel a lot more comfortable riding on the road than I did at one point!! We even cantered in the grass at one point. Since we turned onto another road after we were on Indiantown Rd for a bit we had a stop sign..and I am guessing since Navajo was a carrage horse at one time he knew what a stop sign meant because he stopped =) I was quite impressed and a bit surprised =D We turned and went a bit farther down Indiantown Rd then we turned back and headed home. We did quite a bit of trotting today and Navajo was really enjoying himself. Once we got back I tied him up and turned Beauty out and groomed Navajo!! Overall I worked Navajo about 40 min and Beauty an hour!! I am very happy with how far both horses have come since I have them. Navajo in the last year and Beauty in just the few days I have had her!!

Both horses get a break tomorrow evening as I will be at work and then Thursday Abby Bayle will be coming so I don't know if I will work with the horses then or not =) We shall see!