Day 31 - Side passing

Today we got to the ranch around 1:45 but we just loaded up some wood to return then left to mccoys. When we finished we stopped at a nursery to pick out some palms and stuff for around my cabin on the way back. When we finally got back to the ranch I went and got Disco, haltered him up, then took him over to the arena and started reviewing everything we did yesterday and reviewing a couple other things. While I was doing that everyone else set fire to the burn pile and Disco was a bit concerned about it at first and had his eye on it while I worked him. He was doing really good so I quit him and took him over to the fence by my dad, who had the hoof jack. When we started he was a little fidgety but stood pretty good and we were able to do a lot more on the left front. So we decided to give him a matching pair and go ahead and do his right front also, he was a lot worse on that side but its all you could expect since we had not clipped this one at all and had already done some with his left hoof. But it only took one lap of backing around the arena until he stood still and let us trim him. Never expect to much from a horse, especially a wild one when you trim him for the first time, it is almost certain that your horse is going to act bad and not stand still. When he was done I started to send him from side to side and let him rest on the fence to prepare him for side passing. He was pretty comfortable on the fence so I went ahead and started yielding his forequarters 45 degrease, rub him, yield his hindquarters 45 degrease, rub him, and do that for a lap or two around the arena. Then yield his forequarters and hindquarters without the pause between each one. We were having some trouble so we did have to go back, yield his forequarters, and desensitize him because he was getting a little hot and I was putting to much pressure on him at first and asking him to do it like a pro (like all straight and more than one step at first and stuff like that) we both had some trouble at this but when I let down the pressure he started to do better and better. So I asked him for his first side pass... and he did really good for his first time ever! But when I asked again he was just freaking out again and I realized that I was again putting to much pressure on him and had to back down ALOT! But again when I did he did great and I was able to do both sides really easy! So I ended on a good note at went ahead and did some more run op and rub and some desensitizing to the plastic bag with him before letting him go. We also did some throw to a stop today and are about done with intermediate already!