Poptart was very calm and confident yesterday. We split his training into 2 sessions, a morning groundwork session and an evening riding session. In the am we just repeated our last session and everything was more confident and improved. He 100% knows the pattern of backing onto the tire for a cookie, backing to the hay bale and squeezing between the hay bale and barn wall backwards. Where he suprised me and excelled was sidepassing over the hay bale, once again we took it slow but ended with him sidepassing over it to the right, pausing and sidepassing back to the left for a cookie. He is really learning the pattern and is very confident -- no worries if he bumps it with his legs, etc. We will keep repeating it for a few more sessions and at some point add in a 2nd hay bale for a longer side pass. Then we grazed and played with hobbles again. Hobbled the back legs and this time he got a bit worried when needed to spread his legs to poop and couldn't (bad timing on my part, LOL!), but he kept his head and as soon as he relaxed and went back to grazing I removed the hobbles.
Saddling went bettter for riding, he was more relaxed in general and when he worried about Rogan he got to practice backing, moving his HQ, sidepassing, etc until he became relaxed and focused on me again. Did not seem concerned about the saddle, but we had one tense moment when I first ran the latigo through the cinch ring and held pressure. I am not sure what he was thinking/worried about (the cinching, where Rogan was, etc?) but he kept still and we waited until he relaxed and proceeded with saddling. For our riding warm up we did more sideways around the barrels and then practiced sidepassing and backing up next to the big green ball, he is improving but not ready to actually back into it or touch it sidepassing (though he is more than happy to push it around with his front end!) I had him move out prior to mounting (to make sure he was okay with the saddle at all 3 gaits-- my standard pre-ride check before getting on any green horse). He has gotten into a little habit of breaking gait at the canter and starts trotting at about 1/2 -3/4 of a lap. We played with changing direction everytime he broke gait (the 1st time we've played this game together) and he figured it out pretty quick and we ended with 1 full lap of canter. Riding was great (Rogan was in the front field, not put away in the stall so that may have helped) but he was very relaxed after mounting and was happy to stand until asked to move. He was smoother on sidepassing from barrel to barrel and we added in more trotting and transitions. If he continues to be this relaxed and confident we will really start to make some progress
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