Jasper started this past week in the round pen. We worked at all gaits & focused a great deal on his responsiveness. Ideally, I would like for him to respond just to a point of my hand & a verbal cue (cluck for walk & trot & kiss for lope) versus following up with my stick/string. He did relatively well. Turning to the inside of the round pen with some encouragement. I would like to see him turn in & face me when he stops, but he was much more interested in munching on the grass in the round pen. That's something we'll conitinue to build upon. I'm most concerned with getting him moving out at the lope so that we can transfer that to our "first rides" under saddle. We also continued to work on Desensitizing, Yielding the HQ & FQ, Backing, Flexing, Lunging Stage 1 & 2, & Sending. He just doesn't have a lot of desire to get up & go at the end of the lead rope, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but with that can come dullness at times. Finding the right amount of quietness paired with responsiveness is key.
Jasper will begin my deworming protocol starting on Wednesday. We're scheduled to have a session with Jen of Knotty Equine on October 11th & may potentially be scheduling dentals for the same day.
On Wednesday, I sprained my right ankle pretty good. While I've been doctoring it a bit, I was able to get out to take photos of the horses today & spent some time working with them. I am going to give myself Monday & Tuesday off so things can continue to heal. Because of this, I'm going to subtract 7 days worth of training from your October invoice to make up for my recovery time.
When we start back up on Wednesday, we'll be back in the round pen reviewing those exercises. If all goes well, we'll go ahead & saddle right away. We'll spend a bit more time working on those exercises under saddle before knocking out his first rides here.
- 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.