Playing with Gem and Deb!

Building up communication from Zone 5! That's the name of the game now and I'm ready to start focusing on Level 4. Deb and I sat down with the self-assessment checklist and decided to get started on playing with the level 4 list.

We started with stick to me and Gem was really responsive! I started in zone 3 and tried to move back to zone 5. I taught him to follow my feel and focus and turn when I turned. He really learned quickly and he seemed to enjoy the puzzle of figuring out what I was asking for. What a blast!

We then did the flank rope and Gem did lots of bucking. OK - looks like we have to work on this one. He did start to feel comfortable with the flank rope and we found a good place to quit. However, we need several more sessions of this.

We practiced with bridleless riding in the arena. The more I ride him, the more we build up the feel and prepare for bridleless. He actually felt pretty good about my body for direction and I think I could work up to freestyle L4 pretty quickly. I trust him more than ever and that's the hardest part about liberty in my opinion.

Then, rode Z with the Barefoot just around the playground. Shimmed the Barefoot (Thanks to Christy Hawes for the suggestion!). Definitely put me in a more secure spot. I like the saddle, just need to get more used to it.