More with Saphira

I had another session with Saphira the other day. She's improving with her driving and circle. I can't get a trot out of her in the circle yet... she'll trot as long as I keep pressure in zone 5, but as soon as I lower the stick, she goes back to a walk. I need to keep at it until she can trot long enough for me to ask for the walk before she does it herself. Then build on that. Maybe I'll try Linda's trick of changing direction each time she slows to a walk. But for now, I'll just work on getting the circle good at the walk -- see if she can stay on the circle without veering toward the gate (path first, then speed, right?)

I keep forgetting about squeeze for some reason... will try that next time! I also did more driving from zone 3. She's getting good at that. And we did more with the pedestal. There's no hesitation with stepping up with her front feet at all. I tried several times to get her to put a hind leg up, but as soon as one of the hind legs steps up, a front leg steps down. So I practiced getting more specific with where she puts her feet by asking her to step (and stand) into a small hoola hoop. She did this several times with her front feet without much trouble. I couldn't get her to do the same with a hind leg, however.... will have to keep working on that. She's less confident with her hind legs stepping on anything at the moment. Anyway, I did get her to let me lift one of her hind legs while her front legs were on the pedestal, but she wasn't able to set it down on the pedestal. But it's a start.

Then I saddled her up and rode for a while. I was hoping her walk/trot transitions would be a bit better this time, but they were actually worse this time! She really didn't want to move much. I didn't use treats this session... I was just planning to give her rest if she managed to trot across the paddock. Leg pressure meant nothing at all, so I continually had to use phase 4 (savvy string on the butt) to get her to trot... and even to walk when we were near the gate. Hmmmm.... not sure how to fix that. I get off her at a different place each time and I've even left from the gate at the other end of the paddock once. She continually drifts toward the side of the paddock where the other horses are. I guess it'll eventually get better, as long as I find places away from the gate to give her rest, but I have to get her there first! I wonder if it will help when I start trailering her to other locations. and get her away from the horses altogether. That seemed to help with Skittles: whenever we were alone in a strange location, she was much more connected to me. My "training" paddock is pretty small and boring... so maybe a new location will help. And I haven't tried any of the patterns yet either... now that she's better with the 7 games, maybe it's time to start some patterns... perhaps that will help as well.

It's definitely getting interesting! A new puzzle to solve... OH BOY! :-)