Summer Session!

Hello guys! long time no...Type? heh. I do apologize, life has been so hectic! But I do have something I can post, finally! Ahhhhhh!!! Beautiful! Beautiful! Had two marvelous sessions with Mr. Wonder horse, aka Blaze. Our first session we mainly focused on our yoyo game. Blaze wasn't really interested to begin with, his mind being elsewhere, such as the lovely green grass before him. But as I began to be more precise about how straight our line was, he became interested, I had never been so precise about the yoyo gam e, and he had to think in order to get it right. Once we had a couple of beautiful yoyos, I moved onto the circling game. By then he was very focused, paying close attention to which way I was pointing. However, he made the assumption that I wanted him to trot. I immediately stopped him, turned him to me, and proceeded in re-sending him. And again, he made the same assumption, not paying attention to my energy. Eventually he caught on, and went out in a relaxed walk, head low. This made me realize just how many assumptions I had taught my horses without even being aware of it. After sending both ways with a relaxed walk, we ended the session. I definitely learned that EVERYTHING doesn't have to be GO! GO! GO! It needs to start out slow, and build from there. And even once you can have your horse canter 20 laps at the end of a 45 foot line, you STILL need to be able to do 20 laps at the walk/trot as well, no matter how agonizing long it takes. Believe me, this is especially hard when you are impatient like I can be. Then, later this evening I decided to ride bareback and bridle-less. Just with a string around his neck and a carrot stick. I hadn't rode Blaze freestyle for quite some time. Maybe it wasn't a good idea? I just didn't have enough sun light to spend time putting a saddle on etc. So I just made a brief warm up at liberty then hopped on. Blaze was rather feisty, as he usually is when I'm not "holding his hand" He was all over the place. Zigzagging his straight lines etc. Showing that he was very unbalanced. So I put him on a circle, and gently corrected his body, starting with his shoulders which when we got half way around the circle (coming to where he could turn and head for the barn) He would dive his shoulders in and try to shorten the circle, so I would correct him by picking up his shoulders with my inside leg and neck-rope to put him back on the circle. After a while be became relaxed and balanced. And once we had that, we trotted for a while, he was a bit quick when we would head in the direction of the barn, but as I kept circling he became focused on the pattern and stopped worrying about the barn. (Funny thing is, I've never ended our sessions at the barn, always in random areas of the pasture.) Anyways, I found once he would speed up, and try to start lurking towards the barn, I would loose my balance when putting my outside leg on him. It's really hard for me to steer with my body and continue "riding" at the same time. Remaining in rhythm. No, I don't mean "sitting" I mean RIDING. So that is something I definitely need to work on, and not bareback but in the saddle. Then I can level up bareback. But after I kept correcting that, he..Well...."WE" were relaxed, balanced, and focused both ways. And his head to the ground. It was quite lovely, he's never been that relaxed and balanced when riding freestyle, so I was a very happy momma! after that we ended the session. So proud of my boy, he teaches me so much!