Lesson 7 Aug 18 2011 & Aug 20 & 23

What a fabulous night it was! I left work early again to do work things and got stuck in traffic.! It took me half an hour to get from one exit to another that usually takes 1 minute!! I heard there were storms all around us too, but we missed them. It was dry at the barn. I was there early still even though we left at 4 p.m. My lesson wasn't until 8:30 p.m. and we were there at 6. Love it when there is a bank deposit on lesson night, that way I am not so rushed at the barn.

When we go out to the paddock to get Cooper he comes over right away when we call him, he sometimes sees us before we call and still comes, that is such a great feeling!

We did about 15 minutes work in the round pen, Cooper keeps his ear on me all the time. He does not want to be very far away. We have been practicing that come to me sideways, he is so good on the left side, my mounting block side, but right needs work.

We went in the indoor arena and did about 1/2 hour, serpentines, giving to the bit, circles, did some trot but not a lot as I did not want to tire him out too much before our lesson.

We were working on slowing the trot to a jog, well trying anyway. He is getting better and better every time we ride. I still forget my cues, what leg here, what hand there, it will take time. We went inside around 9 to finish off the last 1/2 hour of the lesson. I got off and on Cooper 3 times tonight and each time it got a little easier to lift my leg over his back. My jeans were sticking to me from sweating so much when getting him groomed and tacked. My helper disappeared and I had to get someone else help me get on, but it worked out good.

Really looking forward to this weekend, more practice rides on Cooper, and even if I don't get to ride I just love being with him, he makes all the worries in life go away and everything seems better.

So sad the batteries died in the camera as soon as we got there. Didn't get one picture or video of our excellent ride together!

But I will be getting lots this weekend LOL

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Comment by Coopersmom_1958 on August 24, 2011 at 3:22pm: On Tuesday, Aug 23/11 I was trying to loosen the reins even more, .practicing being softer on the bit. He was chewing on the bit like crazy, a new one with copper, full cheek 5" snaffle, his old one was stainless and he still chewed that too but not as much. He was sucking on it too, he never did that with the stainless one.
I also tried some HSS on the ground and 3 step exercise along the wall. We did some jogging, he is actually starting to slow down, and circles in the corners.

Perhaps he is getting bored with the ho hum stuff?
I was trying to get him to lower the tip of the ear, he just went to sleep leaning on the bit, need to work on that too. After watching some of the videos my husband took I see now that he did offer me a lowering of his ear a a few times but I did not see or feel it :( I have to be more aware of this.
I have so many things swimming in my head to do with him from watching the John Lyons riding manual dvd's.
I am thinking that I should probably start over from lesson 1 and do everything slower and softer.

Lots of rain storms in the forecast this week, maybe our lesson will be indoors on Thursday.

Comment by Coopersmom_1958 on August 23, 2011 at 3:03pm: We had a great day at the barn on Saturday Aug 20/11. We did some hip, shoulder, shoulder work on the ground, which I had never done before. I only did it a little in the saddle, worked mostly on the circles and playing around with some barrels. I finally got to that lesson part in riding manual, there is a lot of great information there. So much to work on with Cooper, we are really going to have fun and slow things down. I can't believe too that the batteries died again and I had just charged them, really time for new ones!! I was going to ride outside but it started to rain when we got there and never stopped until we were leaving.

Heading out tonight to see him and hopefully ride, will see when we get there. I am charging the batteries now as I type LOL

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