Yielding the hindquarters (and other progress)

Tonight, for our 3rd lesson, Katherine asked me to go ahead and do groundwork exercises beforehand so that all we had to work on was lunging, a little cruising, and the one-rein stopping exercises at a walk, trot, and canter before moving on to the next activity- yielding the hindquarters under saddle.

The one rein stop at a walk, trot, and canter is showing a little bit of progress. Tex actually wanted to stop when I sat down at the trot and actually at the canter, too. This is probably my favorite exercise for now because it does so many things! 1. It solidifies that when I sit, we WILL stop. 2. It works on flexing and becoming more supple with each stop.
3. It is sort-of fast!
4. It gives my horse ONLY 2 chances before he had better be moving at the speed I ask him to put out. This will really relate to our cow work and any reining we may do in the future. How nice will it be to have a responsive horse who goes the speed I ask, when I ask? The only horse I've ever ridden like that was Fancy, the short little sorrel quarter horse mare with an attitude at CP.
5. This one-rein stop exercise also drives in the fact that I do have a way to make things "stop" when I'm on my horse. This in turn helps my control-freak self gain confidence that I CAN do this.

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