Lets work on steering

I worked with Flash on  long lining tonight so we would at least some have steering abilities when I finally get in the saddle and start riding solo. I borrowed a surcingle (sorta like a belt with rings on it) and long lines, clipped the lines to his halter, ran the lines through the rings on the surcingle, stood behind him and away we went! Well.. not at first. Flash has got the giving to pressure down pretty well, but the whole walking forward with someone behind him was a difficult concept to grasp at first. When I put pressure on one rein, he would turn his head as directed, but could not quite figure out how to keep his feet moving forward at the same time while I was behind him. He'd turn around and looked at me...  So I broke it down to first asking him to walk forward with no steering involved  That went pretty well. Then we graduated to asking for half turns. To complex things a bit more, he tended to want to gravitate back to the gate so I had to work with him close to the gate at first and every time he wanted to turn towards the gate, I'd pick up on that rein and ask him for a turn in that direction. Eventually, we were able to work to the other end of the arena and make large circles down there. After some more practice and maybe, if we get a break in the weather, I could do a little practice outdoors too with more distractions!