Well we have crossed over our halfway point on Bonita’s time with me. It started with twelve weeks.
Monday – We had lunge session in the indoor carrying the bit. It was blowing and rainy, with the horses coming in at the end, so quite a bit of distraction. Bonita was very alert, but behaved and listened well. I used a surcingle and clipped side reins to the bit at the end. They were quite loose, just to give her an idea of it.
Tuesday – Another lunge session, this time with saddle and side reins on the snaffle. I also did some in hand work off the snaffle, starting to ask her to step under with her inside hind leg. She got it, with large steps on the left and less so on the right. At the end I put weight in the stirrup on both sides and lay over the saddle. She stood well for this, not moving off, just shifting to balance. That was a good note to end on. Bonita has also gotten good about lowering her head on a head down cue. She will stay there for as long as I ask. In fact, I usually have to ask her to bring her head up. This helps to calm and focus her. To end, I stood in the stirrup a few times from both sides and lay over the saddle. Bonita stood without moving for all of it.
Wednesday – We started with ground work and a little lunging with side reins, then and some in hand work off the cavesson. I wanted to start her learning to move laterally from pressure. She is better on the near side. Her right side is generally stiffer and her shoulder falls in when lunging, so I wasn’t surprised that there was more resistance to moving over from this side.
Then I repeated standing in the stirrup. She did walk off once with me laying over the saddle. I just stayed there and asked her to whoa. Next time, I got brave and followed through with swinging a leg over. She wasn’t into walking on, so I practiced getting on and off a few times. Mostly we stood, while she balanced. She did walk off a couple of times from squeezes. I pretty much let her wander where she wanted to, with a turn here and there. I planned a whoa and she complied very nicely. That was it for the evening. So we had our second ride, the first one with a saddle.
That was it for this week, other than trimming her feet on Saturday. I had other things to do, which I’ll cover in another post…
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