Day 11

So why did we never get bucked off of Flicka when we asked for more speed? She was just as young as the fillies are.
Aleythia was wondering about this and there are a couple of things that are different from when we trained Flicka to training the fillies now.
I think Flicka was imprinted at birth. I don't know that for certain though. The fillies weren't.
Aleythia and I were younger and had a lot less knowledge on the subject.... well less than the little we have now.
It could be that it's just the horse. Maybe it just that the breed has something to do with it.
The biggest difference though and the most probable is this; Before we ever asked her to move forward we were climbing all over her back. Heck we even stood up on her back. She was totally comfortable with us on her back. It was on a complete whim too. It's not like I thought "Hey if we move all over her back she won't ever buck us off."
No it was because I wanted to be all cool and be able to stand on her back.
I need to remember that we didn't totally botch Flicka's training.
So that's what we'll be doing before every ride. Moving all over their backs and getting them completely used to someone on them. Completely comfortable.
We did that with Frosty today. Terry's grandson even got on and moved around on her back.
Mostly did desensitizing.
Oh I ponied Toffy off of Santana. She wasn't all that willing to go Santana's speed though. I just gripped that lead rope tightly and waited for her to figure out that moving at Santana's speed would be way easier. She did. We walked around, did a little bit of stopping, and called it good. Tomorrow we'll trot.