Well, I survived my first day. We only did groundwork, so I wasn't nervous. It was a long day and I learned a ton. I had tried all the techniques before attending the clinic, but there is nothing like having someone able to point out what you are doing right, or not so right. The first thing we did was to back him out of our "personal" space. Well, I had backed him up a lot, but I had always moved with him. I was now supposed to move him out to the end of the lead rope and not move my feet. If the horse doesn't back up, you are to whack the rope with your stick. Apparently I wasn't whacking hard enough, because next thing I know Clinton is right behind me. I know Reba was having fits because of the personal attention that I was getting..... (Alas, he is young enough for me to be his mother!) Throughout the day I got help from his 3 assistants also. Grady is really good in the desensitizing area so we had no problems with that. Then we moved on to yielding the hindquarters, and with some pointers we finally got that going. I was getting some help on the yielding and giving "two eyes" but we ran out of time. The gal said that she would help me in the morning. They are having a session at 8 in the morning for those who want some extra help. It also made a difference later when we had to lunge the horses. Grady lunges all right, but he does not stop and yield his hindquarters well at all. I know that tomorrow we will be "sending" them. You send them between you and a fence and then have them yield and turn and go back the other way. So.... I will be there bright and early. Later in the day when we were to start the yielding the "forequarters" I told the nearest assistant to not go far because I could not get that at all at home. She stuck with me, which was good, because we did have a bit of trouble. Grady keeps going backwards when I try to move his forequarters. We finally got it to where he would cross one of his front legs just one step. She told me that was good enough until he got consistent when I asked. The last thing was flexing their neck. They would not let us leave until we had it good on both sides. I thought I was doing it pretty well, but then Clinton decided I wasn't doing it quite right and helped me.... and then so did two of the assistants. I finally got it. It took a bit of coordination, which is hard when someone is watching you. The final thing they have you do that day is to back your horse all the way out of the arena... The theory is that the more you back a horse, the softer and more compliant they get. I guess partly because they are really dependent on you not to run them into anybody.
We then headed back to the hotel where we asked for a good steak place. After we got there, we all ordered Mexican. Doesn't that figure..... Here in a little bit I will write about day two.
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