Yesterday was a little nuts after the lesson itself so this is the first chance I've had to sit down and think well enough to write about it.
I got there maybe twenty minutes early because I was chomping at the bit (HA!) to start. Catherine was doing some chores around the facility but we got Cypress out of his pen and she suggested that I let him free graze on the grass in the area and he'd be my friend forever. The dude went to town on that grass, kept swinging his butt around and got close a few times to pinning me against a fence. Not that I was in any actual danger but I kept moving around to the other side of him and then he'd mysteriously swing around again.
Didn't put a bridle on him at all this lesson, we did a lot of ground work first with applying pressure through movement and gesture and body language to get him to move in a particular direction then swing his butt around and face me when and only when I signaled to him that's what I wanted. The part I had some trouble with was, and this sounds weird to me saying but makes complete sense in my body as I do it, pushing him with my shoulder in the exact right way to keep him going rather than getting him to swing around.
That took me a couple tries to get right, but when it worked it was great. There was no physical contact, of course, but by placing my shoulder at the correct angle to him and moving it at the right speed it was a clear signal that he needed to continue in that direction. Then shifted my stance and point the shoulder towards his haunches instead and he knew that meant move the butt around and face me.
Similar to the last lesson there was a lot of work in not letting him get away with stuff, and I think that's not only paying off but I'm starting to really understand well how it works. He has a tendency, particularly with Catherine but also with me, to get right into your personal space and even nuzzle against you. So if he's too close or starts moving in we made sure I shook the the harness rope to get him to back off to the correct distance. Every time.
He loves to test his limits, I don't know if it is particularly with me or if he's like this for every student. However I've noticed a big difference in him since we've started laying down the law and not letting him get away with things he knows he's not really supposed to do.
To end the lesson I got in the saddle (after he moved when I first tried to get on I really made that a huge pain for him to have done, big noise, big movements, chased him around in a circle) but we hadn't put a bridle on him, Catherine taught me how to ride and signal with the harness only. It was pretty difficult, I had some success but it felt like there were times where he just wasn't listening to what my body was telling him and I wasn't quick enough moving the rope from one side of his head to the other.
I think she was really curious on what kind of trouble I was having so she got on after I was done and tried to do the same thing and had the same problems, and again was very complimentary and happy with how well I did under those circumstances.
A fascinating lesson.
Oh that reminds me, the new facility is Woodinville Stables.