Cloverleaf!

Today Z started to walk away in the pasture after eating and I went to catch her. She does really fine with I go to catch her. She sees me coming behind her, stops and walks towards me. This is how it always is. I just don't like that she walks to the far pasture and I'll just have to keep giving her reasons to wonder WHAT I'm going to do versus assuming she should disappear. She is such an RBI and she would prefer to meld into the woodwork than be out and about. I respect that and I continue to try to harmonize with that. I'm an extrovert, so it's a challenge.

I put her in the round pen for a few hours while I ran errands. When I got back, we took a break together, then worked on cantering at Liberty. Much better!! Major improvement!! We'll keep working on that. She's got to go at least 4 canter laps at Liberty for us to get our tasks done. She can go a couple now. She's more collected and thoughtful in her liberty canter than ever before. She's carrying herself well and using herself effeciently. I'm so pleased.

We did a little circle game over obstacles on the 22 before the round pen. That was all fine. We still need to get the straight backup at Liberty more consistent.

Then, I mounted and we headed to the arena. She was all over the place. We needed a plan. I set up a cloverleaf course for us about 1/3 the size of my arena (9 paces from center to edge). At first, she was scattered but she quickly came back to me and managed the pattern well at the trot. We did some trotting around the entire course (60 ft circle, maybe?). Then we went back to the pattern in the other direction. We did a lot of resting in the middle on my lawn chair cushion, where I asked her to put her hoof on it. After about 40 mins of working the pattern in both directions, we started working on cantering. She was scattered again and I stayed with her until she got it together with me. She even did a rear end defiant buck a few times. Made me giggle a little.

I'm working on brideless riding so I generally only use the reins if I need to. I'm noticing that there are leg cues that really torque her off. I tried to listen to her and use my legs in a way that I was communicating without making her annoyed. We started to really find a balance. Of course, she became most annoyed at the side facing the gate so I'm positive all the behavior was LB. Nothing was violent or uncontrollable. It was all very calculated and deliberate. We will get better quickly, I'm sure. The weather will allow us to do more canter work and precision work which is just what we both need. I am comfortable now to gallop on her for 30 seconds - one of my tasks. She's fassssssst.

I sticked her again on flat concrete and she's definitely only 15.1hh. I thought she was taller for some reason. Honestly, I wish she was a little taller. It's fine for the L3 stuff - makes it all a little easier... bareback mounting, especially. I wonder if I'll want to continue with her after L3 or switch to one of my others.

Back to our session... we ended with about 10 minutes of training her to bow. She's going down much farther and that was only our 3rd session. I think she understands what I'm after and she just needs the time to feel confident to do it. She doesn't fight it really and I'm trying so hard not to push her to that point. The picture of the shrinking violet horse for the RBI is her most of the time. She swings between RBI and LBI.

It was a great session and I'm sorry it's snowing today. I'd love to try some more things with her and see where we are after she's had a chance to think about it.

Oh, and for fun and to get my cardio in, I took a run early in the day with Delaney on Gemini and Kendall on Rain. We only went about 30 mins (short of what I was supposed to do). We were out of time, though. Both horses did great and the kids giggled most of the time. The horses do a slow jog to stay with me and the kids get a smooth ride. Need to do that more often.