Improvement Needed!

Rode Gizmo after a week off because of weather and Easter holidays. He seemed exactly where we left off with no improvement like usual. Can't seem to move forward on him. I'm attending a clinic at the end of April and those always help. If it wouldn't be for those I'd probably be still riding in hackamore! Backing is slow but happening, direct turns are still going to to a soft phase four of using rein and sometimes he turns on a phase two, indirect turns are good some days and not so good on others, transitions are pretty good in arena, not as good on trail, figure 8 sucks! My next session I will do passenger lesson for a bit to remind him of how harmony feels then we will do figure 8's. I'm feeling the need for improvement right about now! Haven't done much online lately because I cannot ask for circles online and then expect him to move very much in arena. I've got to keep the edge on him or I'll tire him out. When I do online though, he is very responsive to me. We just haven't made too much progress getting to a higher level. One thing to add is that his saddling at home is sooooo good. When I take him to places, because he goes a little right brained, he seems to be a different horse. I need to really pay attention to this at new places and get him with me more before I saddle him. I need to take the time it takes so that it takes less time. He'll probably see me more as a leader also. Oh, forgot to mention that we are improving on follow the rail. He will try and come off sometimes, but I definately see progress on that pattern. Yipeeeee!

Passenger Lessons on CanDo

After a very successful online session, Can Do and I played with passenger lesson. I never really did it with her because she doesn't have impulsion issues. But, I decided to give it a go to become the partner she needs and I blew her mind. She could not figure out what in the hell was going on. Mostly at first, she stopped and I had to get her going again by going all the way with flapping my rope around my shoulders and then on her hip. She kept trying to stop and eat grass. Slowly we made it to a steady walk but she only stayed on the arena side close to the pasture horses. How interesting! I then tried to pick up the trot by trotting in my body. She didn't understand. It took a while, but her walk from a stop improved to just phase 1. I ended up getting her trotting to where she understood she had to keep going. This was just day 1 with this game so I'm expecting better results soon. We then did 4 corners and follow the rail. She didn't do bad, but it wasn't great either. Like I said, this was day 1. We backed and turned on the haunches then turn on front end. Score of 6 with those.