Between VBS and my daughters volleyball, have not had much of an opportunity to work Buddy this week. But today the horse shoer came (ponies were due for a trim), so once we were done I took the opportunity to work him.
We did the normal ground work and I spent a lot of time working on forward motion. I don't like him freezing up at any point in the work. He’s a young horse, so there are lots of opportunities for him to do that. The key is to recognize when it is about to happen and slow down what you are doing to give him a chance to work through it.
But today was mostly about driving. To me driving really asks a colt to think, because he has to follow a feel and react to me from a totally different spot. Like any young horse, Buddy struggled with this a little, pulling and fighting the bit. But with a little patience and practice he came around and started following the pressure I was applying. We even backed up a step or two, so I was really pleased.
He did really well and is about where I would expect a young horse to be at about a weeks’ worth of riding, so he’s a little ahead of schedule.
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