2 steps back with Gypsy

Yesterday I spent a couple of hours with Gypsy. I downloaded all the Level 2 tasks I need to master in order to pass Level 2 yesterday - and there are a lot of them we're not close to (most of them). So right off the bat, I started out goal-oriented, since I was hoping I'd be at least half way there when we go to the L2 clinic on the 21st (just over a week away!). The result was a pretty frustrating session because I was goal-oriented and consequently she spent most of the session right-brained. And looking back, I didn't address that.

Actually I started out waiting for permission from Gypsy to catch her. She's usually pretty easy to catch, even though she doesn't exactly come up to me. But yesterday, I waited until she came up to me. For a while there (as it was taking longer than I thought it would), I fought with that voice in my head that said "screw it, just go catch her so we can get started!". Instead I waited it out and followed her around until she came to me (I would stop following and/or back up if she turned toward me instead of away). It took about 15-20 minutes. Which sounds like a short time, but really, seemed like an eternity.

I wanted to work on a more straight yoyo, more precise driving game (getting her to move her hind end without moving her front end), getting her to wait at the end of a task rather than always immediately coming in to me, backing over a rail and then a more consistent circling game. We worked on all of those and accomplished some success with the yoyo. She managed to back over the rail only once after about 9 or 10 attempts (she'd always veer sideways or come forward when she got to the rail). I left that one alone after she did it. She backed through a couple of barrels which helped with the straightness, but we have lots of work still to do to keep her standing still at the end of the line (not coming forward as soon as she's done).

The hardest for her, for some reason, is the circling game. She can't do this at a walk and really pulls to the outside. And she stops every time after one circle and asks to come in. She was doing this so beautifully last year, that I don't know what has changed. Maybe it's because I've started changing it with transitions and change of direction that now she's constantly questioning what I want. Maybe I should just go back to plain old circling and keeping her there for the 4+ rounds before asking for anything else. Either that or using her stop as a change of direction (turning her idea into my idea??) not sure what would work best. Also, she frequently changes direction on her own and always at the same place. I tried moving the circle to a different location, but that didn't change it. I've been stopping her and making her go back in the original direction, but that hasn't worked either. I'm lost.

So each time I failed at trying to get her to do the tasks, we moved to something else in the hopes we would succeed at something. We did some sideways with a fence and then without a fence. Without a fence she is constantly going forward, so that going sideways with her involves constantly wiggling the rope to keep her from moving forward. The L2 pass requires no more than 2 corrections! Long way to go there.

Then I tried to get her to back up by pulling her tail. At first all she did was pull away from me. So I strung the lead line between her legs under her belly to use that as a support. I started out just pulling her tail, then supported with the line. She eventually got it, but was far from responding softly and never from just pulling the tail. I then tried pulling her sideways a bit, but she resisted and pulled the other way. Instead of going back to just backing up, I tried again, until she pulled away more, stepped on the line, startled herself, got tangled and freaked out. She then spent the next 10 minutes or so avoiding me. So again, I collected myself, took a deep breath and kept following her until she turned and came back to me. A number of times I could easily have picked up the 22' line dragging behind her, but I waited until she chose to come back to me. So at least I did that much right.

I finished the session by playing "put your nose on it" using treats. I wanted to end with something positive so she wouldn't avoid me forever the next time. She enjoyed that and found all the treats pretty quickly and nosed around for more.

Also, I didn't blog my last session with her a few days ago. I rode her for about an hour or so working on up/down transitions. Since she's always moving forward, we mostly worked on the down transitions and at the same time, staying on the rail. She still really pulls into the bit. By the end of the session she was starting to collect a bit and soften on the transition. Not a lot, but a small change. She really can't stay collected though. If I leave her alone, she always picks up speed. I've done lots of circles with her, but maybe not enough. We'll need to do a lot more of these and a lot more transitions. Backing up is also a huge challenge for her and we worked on that a fair bit as well. Lots of head-tossing and pawing the ground when I ask her to back.

These last two sessions with her have convinced me that we're a LOOOONGG way from passing Level 2. I just hope we make it through the clinic with some improvement!

I'm actually concerned about having to canter at this clinic. She can canter, but it's really awkward, stumbly and uncontrolled. I have NO idea how to fix that. I rarely canter with her because it's so awkward, but now that we have to for the L2 pass (as well as do smooth transitions... HA!), I really need to address this. I sure hope Don has a lot of patience! :-)