Progress!

Haven't posted in a few days, but things have been going really well. As always, Duncan is making progress, but slowly. I can not walk and trot him under saddle, but we mainly do it with glo there-she has a super calming effect, and I don't want to disrupt the flow. It is working, I am riding, and all is good. Had an awesome bonding time with him tonight. I love when you and your horse just kind of meet on the same level. It doesn't happen all that often, especially with a horse as guarded as Duncan, but I went in his paddock and he was laying down, and I just sat with him. When he got up (stupid Xavier chased him away, so I made Xavier leave) he usually runs away, but this time he stood there waiting for me to come back over, and didn't seem mad that I was there. He let me pet him and didn't even flinch! And he rested his head on me and kinda fell asleep. It was super cute, and really let me into his world. After that tranquil experience i moved onto socks. She has been bratty about the canter lastly and it seems she's gotten it in her mind that she can avoid stuff she doesn't like. She is totally not s dressage horse, and the fact that she is in lessons totally sucks. We finally get some place and some random kid gets stuck on her and it's like minute by minute i see my progress slipping away. I think the only thing to help her is if she is taken out of lessons and is ridden by one person who continuously works with her, until she gets better. But unfortunately she needs to earn her keep somehow, so it is what it is for now. I have been frustrated with her, and how she thinks she can just blow me off. I was lunging her today and when I asked her to canter she would face around and then pick it up. She has been doing that far too long, so when she did that I would make her trot slowly and then tell her to canter, and if she did not I would immediately tap her. We repeated this process about 20 million times, until she was about half dead and finally decided when I said canter it meant now. I hoped on and her head flew to the floor in a stretchy walk. We did lots of stretch and when I asked for the canter she picked it up right away. Ater a good canter in each direction with reasonable stretch and collection I cooled her out on the drive way. We will see how this process works tomorrow.