Short session

April the 29th,

I had a short round pen session with Gingy today.  First off, I bridled him, and groomed him.  Bridling is usually difficult for Gingy because once again his default is to do the bare minimum.  He likes to keep this mouth about half open so that the bit can't quite slide in, so it's not like he's flat out bracing.  Today he did really good with it, he opened right up and was very soft in his body.  Also he was a lot better about grooming too.  He only tried fidgeting once, the rest of the time he stood in a very calm and relaxed manner. 

In the round pen he was really great and we only had a few things to work with.  I was really suprised at how much energy he had!  He actually offered to canter, which is totally new for him.  Of course he couldn't quite make all the way around the round pen on his left lead, but he tried really hard and that's what matters.  His stopping transitions were a little shaky so we spent some time on that.  I would ask him to stop and he would act like he was going to stop, but then he would take one more step hehe.  So in the end I used that bag instead of hand signals in order to be more assertive, then he stopped and licked his lips.

I was really happy with today's session, but also a little confused.  I just feel like how can I keep all of this progress and not let Gingy regress.  It has occured to me that in order to not go backward, I need to press on and make more progress instead of trying to hold onto what I have.  I'm just not sure what to work on first....  Oh well, I'm sure I'll think of something :)