More on Ash and new horse arrives :)

Well yet again I have been a little lazy and not blogged for a while, so this is a bit of a catch up again and an introduction to the new retraining prospect.

Ash has been coming along really well. Although never raced, he has the typical gaits of a SB. Don't be fooled into thinking just because they never raced that they will move like a normal horse. Some do and some don't. Ash moves like a SB. He was extremely unflexable and we did have some issues with resistance about 3 weeks ago. My fault though as I had excepted mediocre from him and not really getting things right before I moved on. He had been coming of my leg so so and going forward so so and flexing so so, which unfortunetly set us up for a fight when I asked for more. Oopps! Lesson learnt! Get it right first time. So what ended up happening was that when I went to ask him for lateral flex and a one rein stop (at a walk) all I got met with was a huge resistance! He set his neck when I put feel on the rein (mainly to the right) and when I applied my leg to roll his ribs and hips away, he just said "wha???" After about 10 minutes of this reisitance, I got off, and asked for him to yeild away from my hand where my leg was. Once he softened on that, I got back on and started again. Asked for soft flex, only a little, little bit of leg and it was much better. Now three weeks down the track and his one rein stop and lateral flexing is excellent. His forward is much better and his stop and back up is brillant! We had our first canter the other day. Not the most comfortable but we will work on it. I'm not in a hurry until he is a little more mature in mind and body as he is still very immature.

Next project is a little gelding called Mickey aka, Miami Key. He is approx 14.3hh, bay, very plain but very cute. First things first, I did his feet today as they were terrible and gave him a small Bowen. I never give them a big Bowen first up as I like to see how they react to it. He is extremely sore, reminds me alot of Striker. Very weak through the back. I will give him a couple of days and start on the ground, teaching him to yeild of pressure and getting to know him, probably until the end of the week and then put the saddle on and go from there. I will be sure to keep the blog updated on this one as he is a very special little horse.