Axel meets his match

I had Tricia out for a ride after conditioning Saturday afternoon. It was nice and sunny out and a great day to ride. Tricia rode Axel bareback and I put the english saddle on Cody. Tricia began the ride by vaulting up on Axel. Then she took him around a couple trees in figure 8s until she got him to bend with the turns, something he usually just doesn't do. She said he was a completely different horse than he was the first time she rode way back in the beginning. Cody couldn't figure out the reasoning behind doing figure 8s, when we'd get half way around a tree he could see Axel coming around the other side so he'd take the easy way around. I think he thought the point was to keep his eye on Axel the whole time. I probably should have pushed Cody a little harder to listen to me but just staying out in the pasture and not trying to get back to his herd was some good practice for us. We took a few laps around the front pasture in both directions. Tricia kept fighting with Axel when we'd pass the one corner that would take them back to the paddock until he finally gave in and would listen to her. She had him do some trotting circles in the middle of the pasture as well and he really started to collect. He's got a really smooth trot, but of course she could probably sit even the bumpiest trot. So Tricia thinks if we keep working on Axel he could make a pretty darn nice horse. Maybe it's not so far fetched that some day we'll get Axel to jump or something. She's probably going to come out every other Saturday after conditioning the therapeutic horses with me.