9/1 Lesson with Anne and Moose and then Moose went home with her. They did very well and I am very pleased.

8/29 I took him on a two mile road hack. We walked the first half mile. He wants
to look for things to shy at when he is ridden alone and on the lonely gravel road
with just cornstalks and soybeans around, he is hard-pressed to find anything, but
he is a talented and motivated seeker and so found a few things. I insisted that he
walk at a moderate pace with his neck down, while he expressed his preference for
walking fast with the bottom part of his neck tight. We got that worked out and
then moved on to trot. He was rather a pill in trot and had a major shy at a weed
for which he was nine-ironed back to the line I had been riding him on. He settled
down by about a mile into it and then was a delight to ride.

8/25 We worked in the pasture. His walk work was very good today. He was focused and listening. The halts were acceptable too, though I would like a little less weight in the reins during the process. We had some imporvement in his willingness to stay in the trot quietly. He was pretty rowdy in his canter work today, but we got it together and had some nice jumping.

8/23 I rode him in the pasture and he had a difficult time with the walk halt warm up. We simply calmly repeated the exercise until he could do it politely. We did a lot of work on trot. When going to the right, he is fairly convinced that he must raise his head and resist. Again with the quiet direction and over time he came around. Once we got through that, the canter work was quite good.

8/19 Farrier out to trim his feet. I helped him do it since Moose was a little uncooperative. Not bad, but just twitchy. Got it done just fine.

8/18 Anne out for a lesson. Very good!

8/16 Trail ride entirely at a walk. In the first quarter mile I made him be relaxed in his neck, which took my entire attention because his attention was completely elsewhere. After a quarter mile of discussion, it seemed to click with him and he relaxed, breathed and listened to me and we both enjoyed ourselves. Only very occasional correction was needed. Though we never broke from a walk, it was a breakthrough day.

8/15 We worked in the pasture and had a very nice walk halt warm up. He was very polite. Then on to some trot work which went well, with the exception of in the beginning to the right where he wanted to come above the bit, but he came around. Then some canter work which went swimmingly and then some jumping which was also very good. Yay.

8/11 We rec'd 2.6" of rain last night so the footing was perfect for a road hack. He was very good at a walk and a trot, which was great. Couldn't seem to hold his attention with me at a canter though and had some big shies at, ahem, literally butterflies. We had a discussion about which might be scarier, butterflies or Camie, and we came to an understanding. The trip home was much better.

8/9 Worked in the pasture and had very good success with walk and trot work. I was very excited because we seem to have been stuck on tension in those gaits for a week. Then we did some canter work and some jumping which went well.

8/8 Worked out in the pasture and had relative success with trot work. Walk work was very very good. Canter and jump work was very good. Coming together...

8/6 Anne came out for a lesson and they both did very well.

8/5 Schooled outside on the flat and over jumps.  We did a lot of work on jumping a small jump and staying balanced upon landing.  He did well.

First two log entries eaten by the server demons.  During one I did some jumping exercises which went well and during the other I worked in the indoor on transitions which also went well.

 

 

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