Gorgeous Night To Demand R-E-S-P-E-C-T

Our heat finally broke and it was 86 and low humidity today.  VERY nice.  My goal was to ride both horses tonight depending how tender footed my Bonnie is (darn white hooves)  after farriers visit today.

Well I didn't ride Rosie but I worked her hind end off.. well 'over and around'.   Grooming ground tied was NOT happening but she was content with lead just tossed over my shoulder.    She's in season too so...

She didn't fidget much, her feet never moved but her head sure did.  Can you say "swivel neck"?

Not much listening to me going on this evening so instead of tacking up, I grabbed the training stick off for a walk we went.   She was consistently good on halt with loose lead, calling out though as we left the barn so that got some shoulder yield work.  Last thing I want is a draft horse who is barn/buddy sour UGH!

With her being in season I really REALLY had to enforce my space.  For the first time in a very long time I had to tap her with the training stick to get her attention.  Then when lunging she was very responsive to  my position to the left, but going right she would NOT stop and turn to face me when I stepped in front of her shoulder.  She even at one point pulled me part of the way across the arena.. DOUBLE UGh!
  This resulted in more lunging at a canter.. and more canter... and even more canter until I just stepped in front of shoulder as she halted correctly.

Good notes - she backed on hand signal really well both times I asked.  Hindquarter yields both sides is progressing to almost a look at her hind-end to make her step over.   Shoulder yields are good left to right, and still non-existent right to left so again resorted to tapping her repeatedly on her neck until she first looked away, then leaned away, then one step over.    AND I can swing brightly coloured pool noodle thingies all around, over, under and even hang them from her halter without a care.

We have a round pen and I'm fairly certain she can't push it over so maybe tomorrow we'll work on that lunging thing in the round pen where she can't drag me so far.

I debated riding Bonnie because of how tender footed she is right after a trim, and today no exception.  But she was not swollen, no heat and only showing tenderness on gravel.  So I lead her to outdoor arena making sure to stay on the grass the whole way.  She is NOT lame at any gait on grass or sandy footing of arena.  I still stayed at a walk though.  I love my mare and she would die trying to please me so I have to be the smart one.

My goal was to keep consistent contact, and work on bending.  I even threw in some leg yields.
She did really well was always carrying herself and very relaxed about it.  I have to remember to keep contact with outside rein when bending her around my inside leg, and keep that inside hand in one spot! I really worked hard at keeping her forward moving at the walk and my halt transitions clearly defined, sit deep, tall, think halt and exhale.  I was getting really good balanced halts with only a few where she tossed her nose up indicating I was off balance.

Her leg yields are really coming along.  I get a consistent yield starting at K - thru -X to M,  F- thru -X to H is not so strong but Bonnie gives great effort.  I tried to make sure I was queuing correctly as I'm fairly certain I'm not but can't figure it out.   I'll need to break it down into tiny steps and analyze how I'm doing each step next time.