Meet Daigo - my new horse!

Hi Everyone,
I am really excited to introduce to you all my new horse Diago and share with you our first Ta-Dah.

Diago is nearly 10 Years old, he was originally sold as a 3 year old (just broken in)to a beginner rider and....well...apparently it didn't go so well and after the owner was bucked off Diago was given to the lady that I purchased him from, who is a Level 2 Dressage Instructor. She had done a little bit of low level dressage with him but did not think he would go much further and did not want to keep him on. She also found him to be a bit girthy after having a spell and would want to buck and after one or two sale prospects that didn't go so well, she knew he needed to go to someone who had some skills to be able to help him through this. Thanks to Lindy who put me in touch with her, Diago is now in my possession.

I started working with Diago nearly two weeks ago and found him to be extremely scared of the stick & String and any sort of rhythmic pressure. As soon as I would pick up the stick, Diago would start running....and running....and running I knew I would not be able to move on until I could sort this out so every day, I would spend no yielding him... and he kept running, and going backwards, and rearing up and trying to kick me I tried to release at the very slightest of tries and even with no tries but the only way I could get him to stop was if I pushed him sideways or yielded his hind. We were getting some slight improvements, but I was not happy about having to make the decision to stop for him - it seems as though Diago has lived his life without having any sort of thought process at all. So a couple of days ago, I made the decision to be prepared to take as long as it takes to get a try from him. We went around and around until finally, he spun around and stopped and looked at me It was a bit braced and tense but it was his decision!!

We were then able to move on and going to our circles, Diago got a bit surprised when I had to touch his hind with the string to ask him to yield, so I went straight to no yield again. Of course he acted as though I was going to kill him but when he realized that nothing had happened to him, he stopped . Again his decision.

The next day, we started our session, I picked up the stick, and Diago stood still. I rubbed him with it and he still stood still, so then I threw the string over his back and he remained standing. I went to the other side and started moving the string, his head went up and he took a couple of steps then trotted a couple of steps, but I could see him thinking (yes thinking!!) should I run or should I stop? And then he made the decision to stop After a week and a half, Diago has started to use the left side of his brain.