Poet

[Danielle]

The past couple days we've been working on ground manners and I have to say, he's getting much less pushy. I've been just leaving his bridle on him for 20 minutes or so with a very close watch, letting him get used to it. He's actually starting to trust me and he basically stands still in cross ties now

[Steff]

thats great! he seems to respect you alot more now
will you be showing this summer ?

[Danielle]

Yeah but probably just walk trot in English and in hand classes, where he's still going to be very green and his cantering is pretty firey.

[Steff]

Oh well I hope you do good if you show and hopefully is canter will improve

[Danielle]

March 21st.

I took Poet out to groom him and get him ready. He was so anxious to get out for a ride, so he was a little wander-y and pawing a bit. I took him out and tightened his girth and mounted fine. He was pretty high strung at first, where he hasn't been ridden since Wednesday but he calmed right down. He was listening exceptionally well to my legs, bending very nicely. When I asked him to move forward, he did a fast trot/rack but no attempts to break into a canter. He barely tried to leave at the gate. We did figure 8s and circles and crossing the school on the diagonal. Amazing day

[Danielle]

March 22nd.
A little trouble today, Poet was ducking off the rail everytime I asked him to speed up. We worked on that for a while, then did some circles and figure eights at the walk. He's listening near perfect at a walk and needs to start to speed up. Will just take work like the walk did

[Danielle]

Good day today We did lots of work at the walk, circles and such. Then we started moving forward a bit. He was a bit high strung and broke into a canter a couple times but did some nice trotting too Worked a little in hand today, we went down to the field without an incident. Infact, he went down there with his head down and he was totally relaxed. He's relaxed in general now and I'm glad to see it

[ariana]

Nice to hear he's finally calming down and listening !

[Danielle]

Guys I have a couple things I need some help with. Thanks in advance

1) When I try to trot Poet past the gate, he speeds up and ducks towards the gate. He also ducks off certain rails. I've tried open rein, direct rein and when I used my legs he canters and hes even harder to control.
2)He's nippy but I don't want to make him head shy, as he already sticks his head up in the air.
3)His bridling is still and issue and so is haltering. I tried to put a show halter on him to size it but he kept putting his head up.

Help? D:

[blueboy]

Head Shy....... www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJPlCPQ2ams&feature=PlayList&p=B29C1982FBFF557B&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=32

[Danielle]

Lots of work on leading today. I worked on him stopping when I stopped, walking forward when I did and backing up when I backed up. He didn't get the backing up at first, but after some correcting and firmness, he was starting to catch on He was a little pushy at first today, where he hasn't been out for two days because of the weather but we'll work on that

[Danielle]

Pretty go day today Heather helped me lunge Jim, and he was fantastic! He's barely been lunged only a couple times this past year and he kicked up a bit of a fuss but overall well. Heather also helped me with his leading issues and he respects me a lot more. Thanks Heather!
I took him for a little ride after. He was really good but then he got a good spook and I fell off again (oops!). I got back on for a minute.

[heather13]

silly girl.. you should have left it where we finished of :/ Hope your okay!

[Danielle]

I was going too but stupidly thought a little ride wouldn't hurt :/ I'm fine, it wasn't a tough fall.

[heather13]

patients patients!! I know it can be frustrating!!