Progress!

Finally! It feels like we're getting somewhere. Yeager is getting much better about his stall manners. Today, I got there about four pm. He stood quite well for a quick groom and being saddled. He makes faces sometimes about being girthed up but nothing serious.

We did walk trot canter in both directions on the lunge in the lower arena. He was excitable today but in a slightly different way. He wanted to canter off repeatedly, but there was no bucking or rearing. His canter, even as a disobedience, was much more balanced and he corrected his leads each time so that he ended up correct and balanced.

Once he was doing down transitions promptly and calmly, I took him off the lunge and got on. We did several turns of the arena, some large figure eights and some trot. My balance still isn't what it needs to be, but it's coming back. I have to be really conscious of continuing to breathe steadily. That seems to have the greatest impact on relaxing Yeager.

I turned him out in the big paddock while I cleaned his stall and put his dinner in. He was a little saucy coming on but stood really well for his rinsing off and wore a light cotton sheet for the night. He's been finishing his hay consistently so I increased his hay by five lbs. He's sitting right at 28 lbs today. He's getting 6 lbs a day of TC senior (in two feedings). He still needs about fifty lbs to really look good, but we'll be able to tell more once he sheds out.