I have had a lot of good consistant rides on Scooter. He is starting to consistantly jog and we're working on good travel on the rail. From the lope he will drop down to a nice relaxed jog when asked. He still needs work on picking the jog up as he wants to go a little fast at first, but it's coming. He is doing a solid 180 degree pivot to the left and getting stronger to the right. I have started teaching him to pivot on the fore hand and he's getting it. I have also been having him leg yeild a little and he is starting to get softer at doing that. He is getting really good at his stopping. He's getting very rounded stopping from the lope and his stop is much better at the jog.
His showmanship is open show ready. I say that as he has the manuvers down well, but still needs some polishing for an APHA show. He's definatly going to be ready for his first show in May!
April 30, 2008
Scooter is doing very well in his training. We've been working hard prepairing him for walk/trot classes and showmanship at his first show doing performance classes this coming weekend. Last night he was ridden for the first time with other horses in the arena and he did super, like they weren't even there. I have also started working on getting him to bend his hip in for loping and as soon as we get through this show that will be our main focus, working on the lope.
I also body clipped Scooter a couple of weeks ago for the show and he stood ground tied for the enire clipping. I will finish up his legs today. He is just a great horse to work with and I'm so pleased with how his training is progressing.
May 9, 2008
Scooter is continuing to do well. He went to his first show undersaddle as well as his first indoor show since we've owned him. He took in all the sights and relaxed into his environment well. The crowds didn't bother him, the horses didn't bother him, the noises didn't bother him. He did a lot of looking around and not a lot of paying attention to what we were doing, but that's to be expected at a first show. I was worried when our two classes were larger and it got crowded in the arena, but he manuvered his way around like a pro, not getting bothered by the other horses at all.
I did also show him in Showmanship and Halter. He did great on the showmanship pattern and stood well in the line up. Sadly we didn't place because he decided to relieve himself of a full bladder just as we were to start our pattern. But all in all I was exteremely pleased with his performance.
I have been working with Chance for a little over a week now. When he first came here he was very nervouse so we sepent a lot of time just relaxing and getting to know eachother and letting him know what I expected out of him. For the first week we didn't make a lot of training progress due to that but yesterday it all came together for him. He was much more relaxed so we were able to work a lot more on bending and giving, pivoting on the forehand and the lope. He has been kicking at the spur when I'm asking him to move himself but I just make him work more when he does that and he's figured out it's just easier to do what's asked.
May 9, 2008
Chance has been continuing to improve in his workouts. He is now moving lightly off of leg pressure for what is asked of him and relaxing into the routine of things. Yesterday however we did have a bit of a set back, he was on edge and refused to be bridled. I worked with him to stand quietly and I also worked on just bridleing and unbridleing him several times and he finally relaxed and gave in and we moved on to more work. I have been working on his backing as he does not like to back straight and he is improving with each lesson. We have moved to doing more work on the rail now.