Cody to the Left

Last time I made it out to the barn to ride I met Cody in the pasture taking a nap. That old horse has come a long way since I've bought him. A few years ago there's no way he would have let me walk up to him in the pasture while he slept let alone sit on his back like I did the other day. After I hung out with him for a few minutes, took a bunch of pictures, and annoyed him to the best of my abilities I finally put the halter on him and he reluctantly got up.

I wanted to set up a series of poles to work on turns on the haunches and forehand but we don't have quite enough poles in the barn and they aren't very long so my pattern was a little small. We did walk through it a few times but next time I'll have to make it bigger and probably video tape the session so I can see what he's doing. I tried to work him to the left as much as possible since that's the direction he has the most trouble with. He really hollows out and counter bends going left and doesn't pick up that lead of course. I thought maybe the chiropractic adjustment would help a bit but even on the lunge he wouldn't get that left lead. Back to the drawing board I guess. One good thing that came out of it was that I'm more comfortable with the old boy. It always felt like he got so worked up after one attempt at cantering but after watching Nancy ride and seeing how not worked up he really was something must have clicked for me and now it doesn't feel like he's freaking out nearly as much. So I guess one thing at a time.