Groundwork with Daisy and Jess and Riding Curly!

Today I worked with Daisy, Freedom, Jess AND Curly. When I got to the barn I decided to work with Jess first. The ground was softer than it has been for a while so I roundpenned her. She responded quite well, better than she had on Monday evening. I worked her until she lowered her head, was chewing and flicking her ear toward me. I also got her to turn both ways too. I stopped her and turned away once I thought she would be ready to join up. She did come to me and touch me after a bit. Didn't do so much with the following but I thought it was an improvement, because on Monday she hadn't really wanted anything to do with me as far as even touching me or following. I led her into the barn where I got her to back up and move her hindquarters. She did well with all that, so I put her back in her stall to eat her supper.

Before I worked with any of the other horses I cleaned all the stalls, except Nessa's cause I wasn't sure how Sara would feel if I did her stall. Prince and Thunderhead (steer) weren't to sure about me being in there stalls cleaning them while they were in them but they let me do them. I cleaned Jess's while she was tied outside.

I decided since I wasn't planning to ride Daisy I am going to just ride Curly first and then work with my horses. Rode Curly for 20 minutes, came back and got Daisy out of the meadow. Brought Freedom in as well. I tied Freedom, then took Daisy out to the round pen. Sara was there working with Nessa and she was in the areana. That was a bit of a distraction for Daisy but Daisy settled down and listened to me. :) I worked her both directions, getting her to turn and change directions. Toward the end she kept making the circle smaller which is what I like to see when I plan to join up but I wanted to work her a bit more and she was like no I want to come to you, NOW. I got her to back up and move her but out and such a few times then I allowed her to come and join up with me. I opened the gates to the areana (you walk thru the roundpen to get to the areana...it is technically part of the areana but you just close two gates to make the round pen) and left them open so Sara could come thru when she was done with Nessa. I laid Daisy down and hopped on her. Daisy does so awesome with the laying down..so pleased with how she has responded to that. Sara and I talked for a while then we went into the barn. I took Daisy out to the meadow and was working with Freedom a bit on backing up and such. Then I took him out to the meadow too. I spent about 15 or so minutes with Daisy. Overall I spent two hours at the barn. I was so pleased I got to work with all the horses like I did and spend time with them. We shall see how much I get to work with them tomorrow!