Another Long Session...

We had another long session on Sunday. 

On the ground we worked on backing, yielding forequarters, side-passing down the fence-line and we lunged a little.

I’m going to move on and introduce the next exercises on Gaining Respect and Control on the Ground-2.  We’re not perfect at the exercises we’re doing now, but with practice we’ll get better.  We need to work on something new so things don’t get stale. 

So, I’m going to introduce throwing the rope and stopping, and see-sawing the rope this week.  We’re also going to do desensitizing with the plastic bag.  I don’t think Max will have a problem with it since he’s pretty laid back.  

I’ll let you know how we did.

We had an hour-long ride again.  We worked on yielding hindquarters at the standstill, backing, trotting and posting and cantering.

Max is really tossing his head when we yield hindquarters at the standstill and I’m not sure why.  He gets very irritated, tossing his head and chomping on the bit.  I put a chin strap on his bridle after I read about it keeping the bit from sliding through his mouth, but after this ride I took it off to see if there will be a difference. 

He wasn’t doing all that anxious behavior when the strap wasn’t on the bridle, so we’ll see if there is a difference tomorrow when I ride without the chin strap.  And I don’t think the bit was really sliding through his mouth anyway.  I was just trying to be pro-active.  I don’t think we need it. 

Also, it’s a chain strap because that’s all I had.  I think Clinton Anderson only uses leather chin straps.  Leather probably feels better than the chain, and probably does the job just as well as a chain. 

I’m not progressing quickly with the riding exercises at all.  And it’s me, not the exercises or Max or anything else.  I canter now, but still need to canter more to get super comfortable with it.  Once I get really okay with it, we’ll move forward.  I’m not going to push it. 

Another long session tomorrow…

Have a good ride

Greenhorn