Session 1: I worked Jackson on the ground
for about 45 minutes. We mostly just played
and had fun. He seemed pretty energetic
today. He likes to trot around doing the
passage or just showing off.
He laid down about 6 times. Several on
command and several on his own. He did some
very nice bows and rears. I have been cueing
Jackson to bow by going down on one knee my
self. I am think I want to cue him to do the
obeisance by throwing my arms up as if to
signal “ta-da!” I will have to see how this
idea works.
Session 2: I worked Jackson for about 45
minutes. We worked on different cues for the
bow and the obeisance. I don’t think it will
take very long before he will get it!
I also rode him bareback for about 10
minutes with a bitless bridle. I just worked
a little on endotapping. We did a little bit
of the half pass to the left at the walk,
which he did really well. Then I decided to
try it at the trot. He did it! It was just a
little bend, but he did it pretty easily.
Very exciting for me, especially after
reading in the dressage books how you can’t
get the half pass until the horses are very
advanced.
I am only asking for a few steps of the half
pass and I am not asking for very much bend,
but it is so cool knowing that with practice
we can do it!
Then I asked Jackson to really trot out and
he was doing a pretty fast trot and he
dropped his head on his own. I noticed that
his trot is much bigger and his strides
longer; they are not so choppy. When he
dropped his head, I felt his back lift up
and really move! That was very neat!
