What a great lesson with Karen today!
Sometimes I wonder if Satin is digesting our lesson as much as I am. She sure does lick and chew and yawn like crazy throughout our lessons.
Today:
Transitions w/t/halt/back in no particular order, driving from zone 3 along a fence line.
We started off disconnected and Satin was not engaged. I had trouble staying in zone 3 and also had issues waiting for Satin to move before I move. After being passively persistent for a while we finally started to get in sync and she became more aware of my suggestions. When she dragged her feet, I shadowed her pace going painfully slow. It was fascinating to allow her whatever pace she wanted (as long as she was maintaining the gate) as opposed to nagging her to speed up or causing an argument. We finally got a connected trot without a cranky face! We stopped immediately, gave lots of scratches and let her digest.
We then moved on to mounting.
Another mind-blowing session. Teaching Satin to line herself up next to me to be mounted -- and having her choose and want to do it! I stood on a mounting block and played the squeeze game (sort of). She was being a little extroverted and couldn't keep her feet still, so when she didn't stop in front of me on the block, I would help her move her feet in a squeeze game-like fashion -- send her past me, disengage hind quarters, send her back in front me and relax(go to neutral) when she's where I want her to be.
She understood very quickly on the left side, but her right side took about 20 minutes. Super cool.
