Training Kai- day 5

My friend Tara (luvmyhrs in the comments) noticed something about Kai that may have some bearing on his left side problems.

Can you see it? Left nostril higher, left eye higher and left occipital bone more prominent. Not sure how all this relates, but I am willing to believe that he has physical problems that may well relate to his nervousness on the left side. I did do the menace response test to his eye but it seemed fairly normal.
With that in mind, I worked him in the round pen today. He had no problems whatsoever with the stick and string until I upped the pressure a little by whirling the string overhead so that it made that whirring noise, However, he settled in short order, so I moved on to saddling him up. This is where it got interesting. When I picked up that saddle, he absolutely did not want to look at me out of his left eye. He wanted me and that scary saddle in his right eye. I packed that saddle around to his left side and he'd turn his head to get ma in his right eye. I finally had my niece hold the lead rope while I tried again- no chance. But when I went to the right side.... saddled him up tickedy boo. So I think I'll just leave it that way until I can get some body work done on him when Shayla gets back from California. I'll just consider it a handicap and work around it - for now.
Once saddled, he's just fine.
I longed him first, then put the bridle on and went over the giving to the bit exercises- he had it down pat. So next up was prep exercises for ground driving- the first one I do is the rein around the hip on the opposite side, which is a follow up to the move the hip exercise I did a couple of days ago. This one was easy for him as I've been doing it with the halter and lead line all summer, he just had to translate it to the feel of the rein instead of the lead line.

After that, I worked on walking beside him and handling the reins like I would if I was riding, getting some forward movement and then picking up a rein and asking for a turn. It was a little discombobulated at first as he wasn't quite sure what I was asking, but he picked up on it quickly. I also asked him to rein back. I'll do this for another day to make sure he's got it, then I'll introduce the driving lines. I have some nice biothane driving lines. It will be interesting to see how he handles that given his worries on the left side.