Schooling Rio, continued

After finishing up some trimming on a front foot, Rio got some in hand work in the round pen. We put the tarp down and he walked over it with no hesitation. Then we built an open end box and worked on turning him inside it.

After that, he got a lesson in sidepassing.

He did quite well at these two exercises. The idea was to get him using his brain to start thinking about where his feet are, and where he has to place them in response to certain cues. We also worked on having him stand square, placing each foot where Shayla asked for it. He's a long way from show ready in that department, but he's picking up on things really quickly. 

Since we had his brain engaged and he was behaving nicely, we saddled him up, and did something else new: his 4th ride was a trip through the yard and out on to the hayfield, Shalya riding and me leading. I'm telling you, that horse has a long stride! I had to work at it to keep up with him, and I have long legs. 

Here are the first ever Rio Ear Cam photos!

He was so good! When we turned back, he saw Nitro and started to ramp up a little, but a couple of corrections and he came right back mentally to us.

Good boy, Rio!