As advertised, he will typically only allow me to approach his head. I then have to wait for him to relax before I can move to his side and even then his head shoots sky high when I do. If I move to his side before he gives "permission", he will jump sideways and run off. This is not acceptable behavior, so I focused this week on trying to fix it.
Yesterday, he finally allowed me to walk briskly up to his left side without jumping away or without even raising his head much. Yea!! Unfortunately, this morning he went right back to his old habits, but now I know he can do it, so we have a starting point.
I took Sweetheart to the arena on Thursday. We worked on getting into a lope because she wanted to just do a faster and faster pace. Her hard fast pace is actually not that bad to sit, but loping is still more comfortable. She started to get it. We'll keep working on that as well as maintaining the lope.
I rode Raven for the first time this week. I've taken more time with her to try to build her confidence. She's been kind of flinchy and jumpy and I wanted to try to get some of that out of her from the ground. She did ok under saddle. I think steady riding will help her relax more and hopefully smooth out her gait.