Lady Miller and Tricks

Worked with Lady Miller at 4-H yesterday. We were both much more relaxed than last week. I started on the ground and did a few things with her, and she never got finicky about it. I worked with her on dropping her head, and leading by the front legs.

I mounted her slowly and carefully today. I made sure to watch her face to see when she was getting impatient, crabby, or bored. She never tried to nip when I got on!! That's a first for her!

Riding went well. We did stubbies twice around the arena so I could stretch, and then we started on trot work, leg yields, and ground poles. Casey told me that she had worked with Lady earlier in the week, and she had found that when she asked Lady to trot, and then immediately relaxed (but not enough to make Lady stop), Lady would go into her nice, slow trot and keep it for a while. It made perfect sense- why haven't I thought of it before?? Anyway, it worked really well! I would ask Lady to trot by bringing my energy up and moving My seat a little faster, and then immediately after she picked up the trot, I would sit down into her back just the slightest bit- not enough to stop her, just enough to slow her. She went into her beautiful, western pleasure, riding-on-water trot- and she kept it almost the entire way around the arena! She's doing so good!

I also got to ride Lacy for a few minutes. Heavens....you look at her and you see her being so good, and then you get on and you realize just how much you have to do to keep that pony focused! But she's so sweet! She's really become attached to Casey...she kept on trying to run back to her every time I asked her to trot.

And in other news- Kate is teaching Lady to do the Spanish Walk! From the ground! She's looked at dozens of youtube videos, and she started training Lady a few days ago using the method she thought looked the best. For now, she's just asking Lady to lift the leg when the pressure is applied. She said she found a little pressure point right behind Lady's knee. Lady's getting it really well! Every time she picks up her leg, Kate picks up her own leg, and says "Step". Then Lady gets a treat. She's already picking up her leg when Kate's getting ready to ask for it, so I think they'll start working on getting some height and some distance soon.

Buster's bow isn't going very well. He's more interested in the treat, rather than learning something new. Little introvert. x) I'm going to do some reading and see what I can find.

I think that's it for now. The weather this week is supposed to be crummy, so I doubt we'll get to ride much. :(