Lesson 2

I scheduled our second lesson on a day when Jay could join us, because I wanted to him to hear how/why Jessica does things so that we can work with Copper before he goes for training.

Jessica started the lesson by showing us what they've been working on - picking up feet, throwing ropes all over Skeeter's back (something I'd done, along with tossing it around her feet), and round penning.

Still not perfect, but much, much better.

I've never round penned a green horse in my life. Julie round penned Skeeter at her place, but without one of our own, we've not practiced.

Skeeter and I worked primarily on round penning with some excellent coaching from Jessica. I'm thrilled that with just a cluck I can move Skeeter from a walk to a trot, and blowing her a kiss will move her up to a canter.

See how thrilled she is to see the flag in my hand?

Ending on a good note after some circling practice

I wanted to get back over to Jessica's over the weekend to work with Skeeter a bit more, but that just didn't happen. I did swing by after I went to the range to tell her hi and get a quick scratch in. Saturday was a total loss for me, and I spent all day Sunday working on my new classes. This is the reason why she's at Jessica's - at least I know she's getting worked on a regular basis.

At our next lesson, we'll work on picking up her feet and throwing the rope all over her. Jessica planned on getting a saddle on her this weekend, so there might be some saddling/unsaddling work at our next lesson as well. We're probably still a couple of weeks away from me getting on Skeeter, but I'm so thrilled with her progress that I'm okay with it.

She'll end up being a 60 day horse, but Jay's okay with putting Copper off another 30 days if necessary.