Envy and Strikers day

First up was Envy this morning. She did extremely well today. The focus for today was teaching her to leg yeild. Standardbreds are typically taught to lean into pressure, ie, to pull a spider they must lean into the pressure of the harness, they are also taught not to bend through there rib cage or neck so this can be a challange for some. Envy picked it up fairly quickly. She did want to lean as soon as the leg went on, but quiet persistance with an increase in pressure and/or sound, coupled with the quick reward (release) and she was picking it up in no time. She was much more flexable to the right and was willing to bend and yeild much easier that way, which is also her easy canter lead. Once she waqs confidently yeilding at a walk, we stepped it up to a trot, which of course was MUCH more difficult for her. She started off quite canter happy and each time my leg went on, she went, "oh I can canter" lol. I just kept persisting until she got the idea what it was I wanted. She never recieved the reward until she found what I was looking for. I didn't hammer her with it tho, just enough until she "got it" then we had a quiet walk around with the two yearling following close by. To finish up we did a bit of canter which she held VERY well, I was really impressed with how much her canter had come along since Wednesday. She picks up her right lead very easily but the left you really have to set her up well before asking. I will always do a bit of canter in each session with a Standardbred, even tho it may not be the focus of the lesson.

Strikers turn. Unfortunetly still a bit foot sore, but again I did some ground work with yeilding with him, then jumped on for a small session of yeilding at the walk, which he picked up straight away. He has such a soft mouth, I have to be very gentle with him. Did a little of trot but not too much. Although he was better than yesterday, I decided it was time for a proper Bowen, so got off and gave him a Bowen and a bath. He was so very sore through the QL, psoas and lumber region, he was buckling under my hands. Tomorrow I won't ride him, I will give the Bowen time to work and just do some more ground work with yeilding.