Progress

 Daisy

Daisy 

 Freedom

Round Bales in the Evening Light

 

This evening I rode Daisy in the arena again. We worked on pretty much the same thing we have been working on every time I have ridden her for the past week. Tonight she was being a bit of a mess and I think it was because tonight she would have benefited from riding outside the arena and coming back tomorrow or Friday to the arena. Anyway, she has been walking off when I mount her but tonight she stood still. I have been riding her with the saddle and snaffle and tonight was no different. We started off at a walk and I have had an issue in the past of her wanting to trot before I told her and this evening I didn't have an issue with that. A few times she would be trotting along and she would break into a canter but I worked her thru that and got her to nicely trot along. We also worked on our stopping and tonight she definitely did better than she had the other evening. Overall I felt like this evening went well. I told Daisy as I was grooming her that she has been my greatest challenge but definitely fun to train and work with!!

After I had groomed her and put her out in the pasture, I brought Freedom in. I laid him down, then brought him into the barn and worked him at disengaging his hindquarters and forequarters and backing up. It was fun because he backed up as fast as I walked for him. If I walked slow, he backed up slow, if I walked faster, he backed up faster. Love that he is trained that way. Then I got him to disengage his hindquarters both directions just by stepping toward them. I was really pleased with how well he remembered everything from our last lesson! He is going to be fun to start under saddle! I groomed him as well then put him in the meadow.

Not sure if I will get to work with them Thursday or Friday but Saturday we are planning to take the horses to a beach in NJ. I am doing a equine portrait session for my cousins and while we are there then I plan to get some photos of myself and my horses ;) We shall see how it goes!