We started our session with the catching game at liberty and I only had to go to America's hq once; after that one time, she stayed with me no matter where I turned and even trotted to keep up when I took off running! After a good rub, we went online and played the 7 games to check where we were...everything went well and I only had to reinforce a couple of times in the sideways game so I played with advancing our sideways on the fence. America wanted to lag her hq a bit so I pushed a little more of my energy towards her hq and she straightened up a bit. With a bit more of an energy push and me speeding up a bit, she took a few trotting sideways steps so I stopped and rewarded that...it was exactly what I wanted and I was rewarded with lots of licking and chewing. I'd also like to note, I was about 18' feet from America while influencing her with my energy...no carrot stick or string involved!!
We also played with our figure 8's online and we're getting better. I've noticed I really need to slow down when drawing America around the cones...she seems a bit unsure of what to do, especially when going to the left. She also getting better when I send her, she is really moving her shoulders over and going straight through the "X" in the center. This is much better when I'm sending her to the left...need to work more on pushing that shoulder over when sending her to the right but I'll take time with this as this is the side where our draw is more difficult.
After our liberty and online, I saddled America and she was a champ. Did all the prep; cinching 3 times while moving her around in between and got ready to mount. America felt the need to move her feet when I stood in the stirrup so I got down, moved her back into position and tried again. This time she stood still while I stood in the stirrup so I swung my leg over and sat quietly. After 30 -45 seconds, I asked for lateral flexion in both directions and for hq disengage in both directions. Everything was a go, so I asked her to move off by bringing my life up and squeezing with all 4 cheeks and she walked off very nicely. She actually went to the rail and followed the rail. We made a whole lap going to the left at a relaxed walk with no corrections!! I then did an indirect rein then a direct rein to change direction and we did a complete lap at a relaxed walk with no corrections to the right too!! I bent her to a stop and rubbed her for about 2 minutes and gave her a cookie from the saddle and got off.
I'm so pleased with our progress. This was only our third ride and America is really doing well!!
