This week, we continued to work on improving Cody's lateral & vertical softness, the start of his turnaround/shoulder control, & added some Sidepassing, & Shoulder In/Out. The week started out relatively well. He'd been doing well with lateral & vertical flexion at the walk & trot. Today, however, Cody showed that we need to take things a bit slower. He showed that he wasn't quite mentally/physically ready to step up in softness or speed. He gets pretty flustered when I ask for a little turnaround. I suspect that the sensitivity he's got in his poll contributes to this, as he wants to toss his head quite a bit. We'll take a step back & work on some other body control exercises before we go back & progress through the turnaround. Losing a bit of weight should also help him carry himself better through different exercises & maneuvers.
We ended today's session with a little neck reining, which he did quite well with.
On Thursday, we had a little thundershower sneak up on us. We had to hustle out of the arena to get unsaddled pretty quickly when the thunder & lightning really picked up.
Next week, we'll continue to progress his softness & willingness to having his body controlled without getting frustrated & resistant.
(I took some video today; however, it's taking a bit of time to go through 5 horses worth of footage to upload & post, so I will try to have those added to this post by Sunday evening when I get back from trimming & lessons in Pierce. I appreciate your patience!)
- Lexy Nuesch
Next week's update will be posted on Saturday.
I do my best to get these updates posted in a timely manner, but it's not uncommon for me to be outside until after dark, depending on the weather, my schedule, & who gets worked when so updates will sometimes be posted quite late in the evening. Don't be alarmed if you don't see your update right away. In rare cases, I may have to push them until the next morning, but I'll reach out & let you know if so.
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