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Saturday, June 9, 2012

Samantha Thorning with Aspen, (On Line, 60 mins) Played with Aspen OL for the first time since my Seattle trip - it was great to be with her again! Practiced stopping on a circle at a marker with a long Phase 1 and quick to 4 - got some great stops and then super expression and question ears.

Moved on to the F8 pattern fix - she did really well, really looked to turn around the difficult side and go for the center of the markers. It was a remarkable change from last time.... When we got to a good place to stop she came over to me and then licked and chewed for minutes, MINUTES! She never does this - she just kept licking and chewing and blinking, and was totally relaxed and with me. It was so profound we just quit there and I put her away. Can't wait to try the F8 next time! :)


Samantha Thorning with Aspen, (On Line, 45 mins) Been bringing Aspen into the barn each snowy day to help get her confidence in there and play with bridling, unbridling, and yielding the HQ & FQ. Today it was decent out so I went into the arena to play with circles. I wanted to see if we could get 20 laps each way at the trot, we had about 5 corrections to the right and about 3 to the left. Not bad! She just kept asking to come in to me, which was great to see, and took a soft suggestion to keep circling pretty nicely.

Also asked for the canter until she smoothed out her gait and blew out - purity of gait is going to be what I focus on at the canter.

Did some great F8 - though she's still disconnecting around the left marker. I have a plan to help fix this so when I get back from my Washington trip I will start 7 days of this to help get her thinking back to the pattern when looping the left marker.

Got a few nice jumps on a circle without her trying to disengage and then some great STM at Liberty. Did a few HQ/FQ yields and tested a few things out to see where we were actually at without a line attached.

Overall, a really nice session to end with before my mini-vacation! :) I'm going to miss her!

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Samantha Thorning with Aspen, (Freestyle, 15 mins) Got a few super canter transitions and much more relaxation as far as speed - still grumpy attitude, but I'm feeling a lot better about it! :)

Samantha Thorning with Aspen, (On Line, 60 mins) Day 2 of bridle exercises, much more relaxation in the barn today. Played on 45' line, got some awesome downward transitions and helped Aspen understand that she can't just disengage after every jump - that it can either be a squeeze or a circle game. Also backed through the weave pattern! :)




 

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