Monday's Training bog

Horse: Abby
Today's Main Goals: Transitions and Forward
Today's Secondary Goals: Buddy Sour
Began the session with a short trail ride around the pasture (20 minutes). Working in a forward frame and building confidence away from the other horses being ridden. She was very hesitant to lead off the group and kept lagging until she was behind the group. I worked her repeatedly up and back in the group. I then started to rein her away from the group for short forays. When she would continue on with a slack rein and straight, we would return to the group. I then took her several yards behind the group and asked her to maintain a walk and not rush back to the group. All went very well. I then broke off from the group to return to the riding arena. She again was hesitant to move off, but soon gained confidence as we walked on.
The focus of today's arena work was transitions. I repeatedly asked for walk/trot transitions. I incorporated a dressage whip today to get her to upward transitions lighter and quicker. The lope transitions take so much urging that I want to get a more responsive trot transition before tackling the lope transition much. Her downward transitions were excellent! I sort of expected that though, she likes to go slow. She transitioned just off body cues (slowing seat, deeper seat). Her halts stuck, no floating through them. She halted square would move back easily when cued. We worked on these goals for about 45 minutes. Transitions became smoother, upward transitions came easier and quicker, she moved out in a more energetic trot, she began to rein better at the trot off of leg cues along with rein cues, she maintained focus longer and relaxed throughout. All in all a successful lesson with improvement in all of todays goals. Next lesson goals: continue with transition work incorporating the lope transitions, began introducing under saddle lateral work, more trail riding to improve confidence in new situations both with a group and alone.