Tuesday seems to be a good day for training. Robert is able to help me since he's not kicking butt at Aikido, and we have a little bit of time to play with (until daylight savings anyways). So Tuesday we tacked Jellybean up and decided to have a round pen session.
Jellybean was very attentive and interested in what I was asking, and we finished our "pay attention" session quickly. As Rob and I have been learning to work together with the riding portion, we have realized that its good for him to warm Jellybean up to his expectations before I hop on. (Its obvious reading/writing it here...) So Robert works her both directions, specifically focusing on slow, calm turns. This is important because I want Jellybean to be non-reactive when I am on board. So Robert has been refining his control over her movements, with great results.
Anyways, so I get on Jellybean (still mounting from the rail, I need more practice from the ground before I start torturing Jellybean) and we walk around. Robert works the supporting roles of "wave hands when needed" and we walk and turn. Jellybean was really on top of her job, so we decided to push the envelope. We trotted around the round pen!
Robert helped with the gas pedal portion, and I tried to post gently and stay out of Jellybean's way. She was (as usual) a champ and didn't even care that there was a bonus person on her back. I told Robert we were going to transition downward, and I stopped posting and relaxed my seat, BAM we were walking :)
There is something very refreshing about a young horse that is completely tuned into your aids. No insolence or misunderstanding when the cues are clean and consistent. Makes me very excited to continue our journey!
So we finished out our lesson working more on walk/trot/whoa and really being impressed with Jellybean's understanding. She was very tired from this exercise though, she was pretty sweaty and earned a hose off. We will keep walking and work on more turning. Then we might move over to the cutting pen :)
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