Finally a day at the barn! Day 1 of the PLAN Thursday

First day to play with my new goals and priorities! Unfortunately could not find video camera--will borrow BA's tomorrow.

Goal/Concept #1
I want to help Try be more flexible in her right HQ yields.
What we did--
1. To give Try the idea we started with old level 1, 7 games driving game to move HQ. We fairly quickly had nice big steps with the inside hind leg crossing in front of the outside leg and they did not seem rushed or emotional. Praise and quit.
2. Later we took this to a circle or falling leaf on a circle and we lost precision in the step. ??Step was in front of hind but not crossing over on the circle.
3. Later still I did Dan's exercise riding ask first from a stand still for a HQ yield and got a couple of big steps each way but not on every try. I used the carrot stick. Then took it to a walk on the circle and I think a got one or two steps much better than the others and wished I had it on video. I know the feeling of a really good big step and did not get that.
4. Towards the end of the session, we trotted large and small circles with a soft feel and bend. More on the right side but on both sides.

Goal/Concept #2
Being free, having fun and being out of my head: nope, didn't do it. We did play sticking together (stick to me) to music.

Goal/Concept #3
Using seat cues first then leg cues in search of ever lighter cueing: I played "Can Yous" as warmup in the saddle. Try was not fully into it. But asked for go, halt, walk to trot and trot to walk and turning with NO
leg. Upward transitions used kiss some, sometimes she went from walk to trot with just seat and I bet if I made a program of it we could have it with consistancy. Downward transitions trot to walk are always good. Walk to halt were mostly good if I added a vocal cue of "aaaand whoa" A couple Try did from seat without vocals. Turning took leg and lots of body position until later on when we trotted circles from my body alone.

Goal/Concept #4 and #5
Expanding our comfort zones by releasing my need to please Try and increasing Try's mental fitness to be able to continue to "work" on something for a longer period of time: I thought about the energy I needed to be the leader but could not pull it together was not in the mood. (Actually a very sad day with my luck score slipping a bit.) I checked the on line circling and stick to me to quit before it got boring for Try--hope I achieved that. Try got irritated some in the riding but nothing like years ago with my using the carrot stick. She also inititally wasn't keen on the soft feel/contact but within maybe ??15 seconds had it and had so much better self-carriage than a couple months ago. She seemed at peace with that.

Also of note: Stick to me to music was a bit better -- day 3 not consecutive--slightly more energy, better syncing with each other. Better stopping on a dime goal.