Drifter has been doing relatively well. He has very few reactive moments now.
I've been doing some clicker training with him & he's taken to that well. The clicker training, or positive reinforcement (R+), has helped him look forward to being caught & keeps him more engaged & relaxed.
Yesterday, Drifter got to experience jumping the fallen trees for the first time. He did well once he figured out what he was supposed to do with his legs & feet in order to jump. It was comical watching him figure out how to get everything to work together from one side of the tree to the other.
We've been spending time reviewing previous exercises in the snaffle & he's done well there.
Yesterday, we started working on Bend at the Walk. He surprised me with how soft he wants to be. For his first day working on it & without spurs, He did remarkably. I've provided a voiceover video below. This is an important exercise in my program, but it can be tricky to discern what's going on without explanation. This video also shows how repetitive I am when working on these exercises, especially when teaching them for the first time.
On Monday, I will add spurs to the equation & work on getting that ribcage even softer. From there, we'll begin Bending Transitions, Vertical Flexion at the Standstill/Walk/Trot, & Draw to a Stop. With me being down sick for those couple of weeks, I'm estimating a beginning of February/mid-February pickup date as long as we don't have any crazy weather events.
