Progress Journal

27th March
I went for another ride with my friend today but I got on Sam this time. He was raring to go and was fighting my quite a bit and nearly breaking into a canter but I managed to keep him in a steady trot. After about 10 minuters of walking and trotting he calmed down and listened. After awhile he was maintaining a steady trot quite well and was keeping soft for a few strides at a time which is very good for him. Since he seemed to have settled down my friend then got on and he just kept taking off on her so we switched back. The moment I got on he settled down again. My mum says he is a one person horse and I don't know but it may be true. He was still a little rushy but settled down a lot quicker and is becoming much more respnsive. I think he may be the sort of horse that needs a rider with quite a quiet leg or he is very much the sort to take any leg movement as a cue. He is quite good but I don't think he would be good enough for a beginner rider even if they were confident.

29th March
Well I went for a ride on Sammy this afternoon after school. It was great fun he never tried to take off into a canter once and he only rushed the trot a couple of times. I'm not quite sure how long the ride was, it was somewhere between a half hour and an hour. I did a bit of walking to warm up then I did a lot of trotting around the paddock with little breakes of walking in between. I am very proud he stayed soft most of the time in fact there was almost a decent amount of slack in the reins. The contact I did have was very light. He also was very responsive with stopping most of the time. I got him to walk in straight lines up and down the paddock as well as across the diagonals. I soon discovered it is very hard to get Sam to walk straight and he also kept getting distracted the goober. I am very happy with the way we ended today. I also have a picture of before I got on I was going to take one when I finished riding but my phone died before I got off.
Oh and I have my first riding lesson after a few months tomorrow yay I am very excited and it will only be my second lesson on Sam.

30th March
Ok so my lesson didn't end up happening today because it was apparently to wet to come out so hopefully it will happen tomorrow as long as it doesn't rain again. I ended up going out and doing some groundwork with him. I did some walking and stopping (he has been a little pushy lately). I then got him to turn his hindquarters and forehand from both sides until I almost didn't even have to touch him and he wasn't going forward at the same time. At one point when I asked him to turn his hindquarters he didn't he just leaned against me and he didn't seem to be paying attention to me so (I didn't have a crop with me or anything) I gave him a tap with the back of my hand and he kicked out a little then moved. I drove his butt away quickly. He didn't try it again and he payed closer attention after that. I was doing groundwork with him for about 15-30 minutes. I then thought I would get on for a bit I was walking him around at a brisk walk getting him to walk straight and stop and back up a bit. He was being very good, I did that for about 15 minutes then it started raining again and it was already pretty slippery so I decided to stop for the afternoon.
Its a bit blurry and he wouldn't sit still but here is the best picture of Sammy today after my little ride. Hopefully the weather will be better tomorrow.

1st April
Well I didn't get time to put an entry up after my lesson.
Today it was raining when I got home so I didn't get to go out until about half an hour before I had to feed the horse. When I went out I had a go at lunging Sammy because we were trying to work with him on that yesterday. This is because Sammy doesn't lunge. We have discovered after yesterday that he would go out in the circle but after about half a circle he would cut across and practically run you over. So today I thought I would have a go by myself. At first he was very much the same so I gave up with the whip because I was finding it too awkward. I just used the end of the rope to hit him, so I was just getting him to move his hindquarters and then I had a go at moving his forehand away and he stood there for a good five minutes not moving and I was starting to hit him pretty hard by this stage. Then he moved off and I thought I would try and keep driving him forward and he kept going I was so happy we had a break through. I got him to do a whole circle without him trying to cut it off. I then got him to do it a couple more times walk (a little trot) each time I did it he would be less stubborn about it. I then had a go on his bad side. This direction was his worst where he would do a bit of a circle then come into the circle and try and barge you out of the way with his shoulder. I got him to change direction (to his bad side) after a bit of encouragment it took him a minute to work out that me hitting him on his shoulder and having my other hand out to guide him in the other direction was me telling him to turn. Once he figured it out he walked off when I asked then he tried to turn into me (I wasn't frustrated as such but quite sick of it by this stage because he had already done it to me quite a bit. He would just walk through whip/rope and barge past) I gave him a BIG whack on the shoulder and he kept going. He did two full circles on that side afterwards without trying to come into me. I then did a bit more on each side and he had a couple more goes at trying to come in but nowhere near as bad as before. Later when I fed him (he's normally very rude around food and tries to push me out of the way instead of waiting) today he didn't even try to come near me. He patiently waited until he knew I wasn't going back to his food before he walked over to it no fighting with me about waiting. Even when I went back to give him a piece of dropped hay he moved away instantly I didn't even have to ask my body language was obviously enough. I had to get in quite a submissive sort of form for him to allow me close because he seemed to think I kept wanting to push him away from his food. I felt I had a big break through with Sammy today because he is not mean but has no idea of personal space and today he really kept out of my space. I am quite happy.
Now we just need to work on his brakes on the lunge.

That is awesome. You are doing a good job with your horses. I enjoyed reading what you are doing each day. Keep it up.

Thank you very much. It's nice to know someone thinks I'm doing a good job.

2nd March
I had my second lesson with my new trainer today yay. We had both Apache and Sammy so she could have a go at doing stuff with Apache while I worked with Sammy. We both started with lunging. I was with Sammy and after yesterdays work he only tried to come in at me twice today and they were both half hearted. I am very proud of him he did very well and my trainer said I did very well with him she said he looked like an old pro who had been doing it for years. I had him trotting in both directions for about 15-20 minutes I think it was.
She was having a go with Apache this whole time who kept chucking a fit and saying he didin't want to do it. After she got him to do one successful circle she tied him up while we went and worked with Sammy a bit. We went out and I got on and trotted him around in both directions around my trainer for about half and hour or so. During this we were just working on him keeping his pace steady because he was speeding up or slowing down his trot a bit at times. Generally he was quite good and kept quite soft and responsive and only rushed a little bit . He was not keeping his circles very well but that wasn't what we were worrying about at the time. A couple of times he started to bend very nicely and hold himself very well. The worst thing he did was at one point he was just going at a trot then very suddenly did a very dirty shoulder drop and tried to turn in the other direction. The little turd. My trainer believes we seem to be very well suited for eachother and though he is big and sometimes tries to use this to his advantage. She thinks he is very sweet and generally very willing to please he just doesn't seem to have much training under him. He seems to have just a kind of cowboy break in then with the barrel racing he doesn't do a lot of what you would think to be very basic stuff but he seems to pick everything up very quickly. I am very happy after today and feel like I am really getting somewhere with Sammy.
Oh also while I cooled Sammy down my trainer went and got Apache and had another a go at lunging him and he went much better this time. She then got on and walked him around a little just to see what he would be like. She said she would have more of a go at riding him next time.

3rd April (just realized I accidently wrote march in my last post)
Ok I am not happy with myself but I truely got frustrated with Sam this afternoon. I was not able to ride him this afternoon but I at least wanted to do some ground work with him. I had a go at lunging again since he did so well yesterday, well this is where it went bad. From the very start he wasn't listening to me but I thought he would calm down and start listening as usual. He would do about half a circle on both sides then he would either:
A) barge in at me and try to shove me out with his shoulder
B) stop and stare at me or
C) try to go in the opposite direction I was asking him to go in

I would send him out then after about half a circle he would come barging in at me and try to barge me out with his shoulder he was going right through me hitting him. He nearly ran me over a few times. That was what he did most of the time. Then if he didn't do that he would occasionally turn and face me then not move or go in the other direction. Also if I had to resort to giving him a tap on the bum to get him moving he would kick out. I also found the more/harder I hit him on the shoulder (if he didn't respond to the cues before that) the faster he would try to barge into me. I felt I was getting nowhere and we were both getting more wound up so I thought we would take a second calm down then get on with something that we could both do. I then worked on his responsiveness to moving his hindquarters and forehand which he wasn't very excited about but by the end he was responding very well and not going forward or backward at the same time. I also worked on him standing still and his backing up. I then had another go at lunging which he was not much better at but I managed to get one full (not very good circle) so I stopped there on a relatively good note. Hopefully next time will be better.

3rd April
Ok so I didn't really do any ground work with Sam before I got on today just jumped on. I walked him around for a bit then I got him to trot in a circle (which arn't very good but are improving) to the right for awhile. I couldn't really time it but I know it was for a good while and he was really blowing when I brought him back to a walk and let him rest while he walked around a little bit. Then I got him to trot in a circle to the left for awhile until he was blowing again. I have come to discover I think his left side is his 'bad' side. He doesn't stay out of a circle as well on that side and I think he is a bit stiffer on that side as well. After letting him walk around a bit to rest again I repeated the same, trotting in both directions. By the end my legs were like jelly and he was getting very soft in the mouth and barely rushed the trot at all. In fact by then it was actually quite slow and a couple of times he tried to stop. I checked afterwards and I had ridden him for just over half an hour. I was quite happy with him today. I then hosed him off because he was quite sweaty and let him out with his buddies and he ran off bucking to them.

3rd April (again)

I just had another quick ride on Sammy this afternoon. I have a couple of pictures of his good moments I just thought I would share. Only walk and trot. Also he is dirty on his bum I just brushed where I needed to because my photographer wasn't feeling the best and wanted me to hurry up lol.