Final Session: Small Successes

This evening was my final "riding lesson" however, I didn't ride at all this time.

I decided to bring Guinness with me and while on the trailer he lost one of his top front baby teeth! Needless to say, he was distracted by the sudden gap in his mouth and kept making strange faces..

We did, however, have some small successes that I'd like to share:

• he met me at the gate - even after seeing that the trailer was ready to roll
• he cantered to me several times while playing Yo-Yo game from 22' away!
• he stood calmly with me in the stall that he tried to climb out of last week
• he loaded right onto the trailer both times
• I played with him on the 22' in front of multiple people, even though I felt totally awkward
• he peed on cue (I whistle the theme from "Andy Griffith") though I admit that he looked as though he needed to go
  

I've decided to drag that bloody 22' rope and stick around through the dirt until I finally get the hang of handling them together. It isn't pretty, and I'd rather skip it (and miraculously improve), however I've resigned myself to the fact that practice is that only way that I'm going to get better at it. Plus, I'm pretty sure that most people have to work through feeling this way..

I'm going to arrange to have access to this indoor arena over the next month. That way, we will have plenty of time to play and to learn to relax in that setting. I'll be getting to the arena between 6:00 and 9:00 am, in order to have it to myself. I'm looking forward to some Liberty sessions in there too.

Oh, I did try laying 2 flat ground poles in front of the entrance to the trailer in order to encourage Guinness to move his feet independently. It worked! On the first try he did pretty well, so I gave him a bite of his dinner and then backed him off. On the second try he stepped right up with each hind foot individually. Yeah!