Tucker and I practice what we learned in our lesson on Monday

Well, it is incredibly hot out there but....the day started cloudy so about 9am I said "Hey, no excuses, get out there and ride that horse." So I did.

Once again the results were a bit mixed but, over all, it was an improvement. Getting a riding lesson did help.

Mounting block was no problem.

I got the gate open like a pro [almost].

From the saddle I worked on flexing his head without backing up. Sometimes he did back up but I made sure I didn't release the pressure until he stopped backing..

Flexing the head turned into some pretty good turns.

I worked on head down. That helped me work on jogging which I do think I sat the jog a little better today. I also managed to sustain the jog better.

We started out by going through the trail obstacle course. He thought I was turning him to go into the arena so he turned into a pill. We got straightened out and went right by the arena gate because I was just trying to go to the log fan!

I took him out front, got off at the mounting block, checked the cinch and then had trouble getting him to stand still for the remount. I had him walk in a couple of circles around me, rinse and repeat about 4 times and he decided to stand at the mounting block.

He wanted to go back to his pen so we had a couple of patient discussions where I asked him to flex his head towards me. Yes, a couple of times it turned into backing but I won the day and we got on track for a little more jogging and some casual walking.

Once I decided we were done, then we walked to the back. I asked him to stop at the gate and I managed to start closing it. "Step" got it closed a little more, step, a little more. Then, I got him into the pen.

He says "We are going to the dismount."

I said "Nope, we gotta finish closing the gate." We got turned around and I maneuvered him carefully using the reins. Then I used a hind end move over. Reached to the gate and I even got the chain latched today.

I am thinking about an hour and a half of riding.

I finished off by brushing, cleaning the feet and hosing him off. He did good. I slicked sort of dry and threw him some hay.

My friend came over and I got that cute photo of Tucker and I.