Keep Trying

It was a better day than yesterday but I still think Cody and Axel should be with a herd. In any case both horses were standing randomly in the pasture snoozing. I grabbed Axel first and groomed at the hitching rail. My thought was that we'd sort of be out of Cody's line of sight but he could see us if he needed to. I thought that would ease him into us being in the arena. He wasn't terribly concerned with our absence. He called a few times but it seemed to be directed towards the other horses and not Axel. Axel was being kind of a pain while tied, he kept chewing on the rope and I couldn't figure out if he was just chewing or if he was actually cribbing. I'm hoping he was just trying to untie himself.

We went into the barn and I tacked him in the crossties where he stood fairly decent. Seems like he starts flinging his head when I put the saddle on him. I just put the western saddle on out of laziness. We did the basic walk and trot. His trot was just okay. He wanted to stop a lot so I tried to just keep him moving. He greatly dislikes me posting on the left diagonal and almost always stops. We had a few rounds with him in a long and low position which was nice. He was shuffling quite a bit for most of our trotting, I couldn't quite get him to pick up his feet. When I asked for more go he'd try to canter for a stride and then back to his trot. I did ask for the canter a few times but only got a few lazy strides, no bucking tonight though. We tried a few turn on the forehand which I think went better than the first time, it felt like he was swinging his rear end around at least for a step. I hadn't set up the camera so I'll just have to keep working until I can see what he's really doing.

When I dismounted I let him roll in the arena and then I put down the fake bridge so he could work on backing off a step. He stepped up easily and even stood there with all four feet waiting for the next request. I asked him to back off and he did what he usual does, took one step off and hopped right back up. I kept urging him on until he finally stepped all the way off. We worked on that a few times. One attempt he had just the tip of his back toes on the bridge balancing there while I did my best to encourage him to step down. He did alright overall but he seems pretty hesitant to step off going backwards. We'll keep working on it. It's almost as if he doesn't bend his knees to get off the bridge both forwards and backwards. He just kind of falls off instead of stepping.

Cody seemed almost okay with being left alone. I heard him calling a few times but he didn't seem as frantic as Axel was the day prior, but it was windy and the radio was on so I couldn't completely hear while in the arena. I tied Cody in the arena and brushed him quickly and tacked him up. He's the only horse I know that can pace while tied to a wall. I was lazy and just used the rope halter instead of a bridle. After this ride we'll be switching to the bit. He was preoccupied with the entrance as usual. We did some circles in the corners in both directions. I like riding Cody at the walk he actually moves. We trotted a bit. Cody speeds up quite a bit when I post. I asked for a canter as well, it took quite a bit of encouraging to get him into it and he pretty much ran into it. Things were kind of getting a little out of control. He wanted to run to the gate and wasn't listening at all so we went back to trotting in circles until he started listening again. I dismounted, untacked in the furthest corner, and lead him back to the gate without a leadline practicing some halts and backing in the process. We spent a few minutes on turn on the forehand and haunches and some sidepassing before backing out of the barn and going back to the pasture. Axel seemed like he was a little calmer than the day before but he was a little concerned. When I put Cody back I took him to the furthest corner to let him go. Today he actually stood there while I walked away from him instead of running off. Of course he started pacing after I left the pasture. They'll both get some time off as I'm booked the rest of the week and the horse expo is all weekend.