Axel first tonight. He snoozed in the crossties while I groomed and tacked. Right as we were finishing up one of the hunter girls came into ride also. So Axel got a little more experience working with the distraction of another horse in the arena. He was fairly well behaved and didn't try and kick the other horse though we didn't get in each other's way at all so he probably didn't have an opportunity. Some walking, trotting, no real cantering just the "I'm not going to trot" canter. We did a little ground work to round out the evening.
Cody was second and he was pretty stressed out in the crossties but he calmed down in the arena even working on ground tying. I left the chiropractor a message so hopefully I can get that scheduled soon. Once the saddle and bridle were on Cody turned into lead and would not move for me. I managed to get him to the block and get on and he moved fine under saddle but I can tell he's no comfortable with the whole situation. I should probably stop riding him til he can get adjusted (he'll appreciate that for sure). We walked for a while with no reins and then trotted for a while, just a nice little trot. No cantering tonight. We did some minor work on the turns and some trot to halt. Our backing up is still really sluggish and reluctant. I got off and tried to ground tie and walk away but he wasn't too happy to face away from the gate while I went out of his sight, he did alright though, he tried. I backed him to the gate but like I said he's really reluctant so it too quite some escalation to get him to move, even then it was slow.
Cody couldn't see Axel in the pasture when we were done, he was behind the lean-to, and he just about made me deaf screaming in my ear trying to find Axel. Wow do I wish the herdbound thing would go away. I keep thinking all the times I take a horse away and bring him back would start to teach Cody that it's not the end of the world but so far no luck.
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