Back at it

I am on holidays for the next week- no, I am not travelling, but I am getting back to work on Kai. A few things have changed- mostly the weather! With the ground frozen and my round pen re purposed for fencing, I will be hauling to the indoor arena this week. So today, taking into consideration that Kai has had 3 weeks off... ya I know... lazy me... I did ground work with him just to see where he is at. I'm getting winter tires on my hauling truck today so tomorrow I will head over to the arena to ride; today, I took Kai over to Beamer's turn out pen, which has a nice flat spot to work, and put him through his paces. I was pleasantly surprised that he did well- a little frisky off the bat which I expected but it didn't take much to get him responding well to all the cues and paying attention to what I was asking. I also worked on myself- being really consistent with my cues and keeping my energy in a calm and happy spot- and I ended up with a calm and happy horse.

Oh look, he has a tree growing out of his head!

Timing is everything when taking photos.....

Anyway, I worked on shoulder yields, hip yields, side pass, backing and using the mecate as reins to remind him about moving his front quarters over with a neck rein.

He is looking pretty chunky right now! 

I took him over to where I have a few timbers set up on the lawn, and worked on him sidepassing over the timbers. I set it up so that when I raise the stick, he stops, when I lower it he steps forward. when I lay it along his side, he side passes. Once he got it, he was a rock star! It reminded me again why I love this horse.... even if he is a gelding... 

One of the other things that has changed is that it looks like Shayla won't be able to take horses in for training until next year, they are keeping her pretty busy at her new job, so Kai and I will have to learn from each other this winter. I'm sure we will do just fine! I hope to introduce him to team sorting at some point, he already likes cows, being pastured right next to them so it will just be getting him used to them in a different setting- and getting him broke enough that he will pay attention under pressure.