It's so hard!

I love it! It is such a challenge and I love it! You know why? Because once we accomplish this, we are going to be so much happier! I have to keep focused on the results that will come.

The challenging parts:
1) Not babying Satin! She so huggable and sweet. I'm in the habit of babying her and I need to be aware of that. For example, I ask her to back up in phases. She's so used to being right up in my space that she doesn't understand that I am asking her to move away. So I start to shake the rope, phase 1, phase 2, phase 3... she's still trying to come forward. If I don't respond quickly enough then she gets into my space and I would either have to back up (which I can't do or I am losing the dominance game) or I have to stop shaking the rope. So before this happens I have to resort to phase 4 - popping her with the snap in the jaw. It works. The problem is, while I am asking her to back up and she approaches me, ears forward, I feel like I am punishing her for being sweet. I make myself be dominant and get her to back, and as soon as she steps back I am RELIEVED to stop "beating" her (I know I am not hurting her, she has such a high pain tolerance!) and I start telling her "Good girl! That's what I want!" And she looks at me, ears forward, all sweet and cute and like "What did I do wrong, Mom? Why don't you want me in your space?"

Aaah! I need to stop thinking like that! She's a horse, not a human infant! She wants a kind, strong alpha leader and that's who I need to be. *sigh* With time!

2) My first response is frustration! It's hard NOT to get frustrated with Satin when I KNOW she knows what I am asking and she's being obstinate. I must keep in mind that I am no longer "demanding" behaviors from Satin, I am "asking". And eventually she will WANT me to ask and will happily oblige. Right now she still doesn't get that I'm alpha. We're still working on that. She's still not immediately responding to pressure and especially fights the pressure on her front end (neck, shoulders) during the porcupine game.

Good points of our play session:

1) We had a good start to the back-up game. It only took three or four phase 4's to make her realize what I was asking when I shook the rope. By the 5th or 6th try she was thinking about backing up at phase 2 and finally backed at phase 3. Progress!

2) I spent about 20 minutes just standing with her out in the pasture before I haltered her. She came immediately up to me, ears forward, and hung out with me while I stood there. She even fell asleep standing next to me. Although this is not new to our relationship, I have to say that I haven't been taking special time like this for her in a while. Parelli NH reminded me of how important this aspect of our friendship is.

She's still a bit stiff and lame but the bute seemed to take the edge off. The vet should be out this week.