Yesterday and Today's Sessions

Yesterday I went to go to play with Woody and we went over to practice mounting from the ground (bareback, so really it was me practicing... haha). After attempting that for a while (and Woody being a perfect angel by practically going to sleep while I tried to configure my body to mount) I went to get a chair to stand in. After I mounted we sat for a bit, just hanging out. I then decided to go to the two big trees in the pasture and practice Figure-8 patterns. At first, he was distracted by Mom and Charlotte outside the fence playing, so he wasn't really focusing on the pattern. But, after lots of persistence and many figure-8s, he finally figured it out and went willingly without much rein around the turn that he had been sticky on. So, I stopped him, gave him a cookie, and I hopped off and led him outside to eat a bit of grass with Charlotte. After he ate for a while, I led him to the barrel standing up and got on it to mount. After I was on I let him eat and eventually began to do a bit of Point-to-Point with different grass clumps. He did pretty well with that, but was still reluctant to pick his head up from the grass. It was a pretty good session and he is really starting to connect the dots between the likeness in freestyle and online. Mom was inspired by Harry Whitney, so her session pretty much consisted on getting and keeping Charlotte's attention by using the rope on her leg (she says she needs some chaps because she has welts on her legs now). It worked pretty well and by the end Charlotte was really staying with her mentally and physically, so she let her eat grass.
Today it is really cloudy, windy, and cold, so I only went out for a bit. We went out to mostly just let them graze a bit, so once I got his halter on, we headed down the hill, practicing driving/Stick-to-Me from zone 3. Basically, I would stand right at his girth and I would send him forward and let him lead, but he had to be concious of my body language. I would jog and he would trot, I would slow and he would walk, and when I stopped I had to use a little rope to stop, but other than that he was really responsive and tuned in. We also did a backup, which was a little sticky but with a little support was fine.
~Eden