Putting Some Effort Into Things!

Today was a really good day - for starters it wasn't windy, it didn't hail on me, and it was mostly sunny the entire afternoon!  That really makes me happy! :)

Had a good time with Aspen today, got her grained and tacked right off the bat then went in to play in the arena.  We had some really good breakthroughs today on a lot of things.  One being in our Sideways!  We got our first Sideways at the trot from about 18ft away down the fence, then Sideways without a fence for about 20ft at the walk, and Sideways over some poles on the ground. 

Onto the tire she offered immediately to put her foot on it and then put weight into the tire even when it squished a little!  Lots of licking and chewing here! :)

Our circles were awesome!  Walk / Trot transitions happened in half the time they took yesterday and she offered the changes of direction today!  I didn't have to step out and exaggerate to get her to notice me and then draw in and change sides, I just took a bit of a step back and she was right there with me!  So cool to see this transformation!! It was also evident on our Figure 8 as she offered the changes of direction before I was even ready!  Also in all of our circles she kept slack in the rope the whole time and was keeping an eye/ear on me the whole time.  :)

Had some great driving game at Liberty and an AWESOME Yo-Yo at Liberty too!  She wanted to turn out as if to go on a circle at first but I slowed it way down and asked for more straightness and voila! She got it, straightened out, went about 15ft back then offered to come in with a very nice expression on her face.

Had some trouble with picking up the left lead on our circles today - just to note.

Also worked on more approach and retreat with mounting.  At one point she just started yawning and yawning, shaking her head, blowing out, licking and chewing, and went totally relaxed!  Incredible to see all that stress and adrenaline come out of her all at once like that.  Got to stand in the stirrup on both sides today and practiced swinging my leg back and forth - which caused her to want to bite me...next threshold to work on I guess. :)

Had lots of fun today - can't wait to keep building on this fabulous progress!

Some undemanding time together in the round pen.  She chose to graze near me! :)

Backing through the barrels from 22ft away!  She didn't knock that one over, it was already down.  She was quite pleased with herself over this little puzzle!

The poor man's pedestal!  Aspen offered this first try today - even put her weight into it a little.  So nice to see her putting the effort in all on her own!