Another beautiful warm day here in East TN ! I could not believe my luck. I grabbed the lead rope and headed for the pasture to collect CherokeeSun for round two of his pre-Spring tune-up.

I deceided to not take CherokeeSun out of the enclosed area today but to instead work on a couple of control/manners issues. Yesterday he tended to start walking off as I threw my leg over the saddle and there was the head shaking issue.

I started out by flexing him and walking him in figure eights and circles. I also adjusted his bridle. The bridle thing cured the head shaking immediately but the walking off took awhile longer.

I would walk him for a few rotations in figure eights then get off and talk to him and scratch him behind his ear then check his tack and get back on. Then I would trot him in figure eights for a few rotations and repeat the above.

And finally I would combine figure eights and circles with lead changes along with walking, trotting and a slow lope while stopping at random to get off and back on.

Well it worked. After about an hour of work we were in tune and he was behaving very well. I wil keep at this routine for a couple of more months and then just work on the flexing and other quick warm up exercises I take him through.

Hope everyone has a good pre-Spring workout too.

Happy trails.

Oldcowboy