Here is a video of Kirstin riding Taz. In portions of the video, you will see her riding Taz at a trot & sidepassing him, it looks so cool. Kirstin is still practicing this move, she just learned how to accomplish this at Mark's clinic in January. Taz is being as patient with her as he can be.

I think Taz is partial to Kirstin. Kirstin's dad rode Taz on Saturday because Kirstin had been at a softball tournament(she's on the Varsity Softball team) since Thursday so he wasn't getting worked with. Well Taz just didn't seem to want to behave himself. I even saw Taz crow hop which is something I have never seen him do before. He wanted to trot the entire time that Steve was on his back. On Sunday, Kirstin rode Taz and he was an absolutely perfect gentleman for her; walking for her, only trotting when she asked for it, no crow hopping. I told Kirstin about Taz's behavior and her response to me was simply and I quote, "Mom, Taz was made for me and I was made for him, we are the perfect pair! I think God brought us together and that is why we were able to adopt him!" What a bold but oh so true statement. I'm not sure why but Taz does behave better for her even with something as simple as round pen work. I suppose a lot has to do with our cues versus her cues. We try to keep them the same but I imagine that there are small differences in what we do versus what she does. Is is possible that subtle differences could make that much of a difference or is it just that this horse has bonded so strongly with her that he knows when shes not there?