Today was the first time I cinched the back cinch on right away while he was tied to the trailer, led him to the arena, and started the video ☺️ I've been saddling him at the trailer for a while now, but never the back cinch as he historically would explode if I did that. Today he proved he can handle it! You can see him jump forward a bit a couple times towards the beginning of trotting, but no bucking and it didn't escalate!
I still would love if he were more relaxed the first time he canters with it, but he does relax after a few laps each way at least.
Trailer loading day 2 with Tigo. He retained the loading portion from Sunday and jumped straight in today. But then we had to address backing out. Before this though we established a bit more ground work first to be sure he had an ok understanding of backing up and staying out of our space. He is a very in your bubble, nibbly, ADHD type of horse 🤣 BUT, he caught on fast and does appear to have good retention. We did a bad job getting really good "after" clips showing how soft he got backing, pivoting, and some lunging, but I can record that better next time.
He may not have gotten super fast and smooth backing out, but considering how much a stick in the mud he can be, Colton and I are very pleased with where he got today, especially with the ground work. He likes to "throw hands back", so to speek, when you ask him to move away or do something he doesn't want to do. So accomplishing as much as we did today without huge fights is pretty great.
Cooper didn't buck with the back cinch! It's been a while since he wore one so I'm very pleased.
Ride #5 on Prometheus and he got a little squirrelly after a little while of trotting. It was his first day really trotting, not just a few trot steps in the round pen. I'm pretty sure he just got going straight and moving faster and said "woohoo! Oh crap, someone is on me" and scared himself a bit. He just needs a little more turning loose in the arena and really moving with the saddle on and I think he won't do that again.
Still really happy with him! He came down from it fine, and also stopped off just my seat a few times already while walking around before we worked on trotting. Super pumped about this guy!
Theo's first ride! I genuinely did not want to get off and was up there about 20 minutes 🤣 He is going to be such a blast. I almost trotted him but I was short on time and didn't want to start something I didn't have time to finish.
One step closer to his first ride!
Cooper spent some time pulling a tire yesterday! Colton worked with him for the first time since Cooper first got here a few months ago. It was good for Cooper as he was unsure about the "new" person at first, but quickly got over it and ended up doing very well with everything Colton did.
Working Cooper from horseback.
Colton doing all 4s before I trimmed him.
Ground driving Theo with the bit! I am actually really impressed with how he did. I didn't record it but even did this at the trot and worked on backing.
Day 1 ground driving with Theo! He is such a fast learner! This was just hooked to his halter. Probably in about 2 sessions I can drive him from the bit.
I played around with ground driving Cooper without the lines connected to his face! This is solely off of body language and him yielding to the pressure off his haunches from the driving lines. He went from kicking at the rope on his butt to being very supple with this! Will hookup the lines to his halter and then bit!
Also some desensitizing I've been doing.
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