Kaycee's re-introduction to her new mom!!

On Tuesday the first, Kaycee and I went to work in the arena at Horseman's, (our local horse club). Our last session was so wonderful, I couldn't wait to go back and see if my confidence and Kaycee's understanding "stuck". We started out in the medium sized warm-up arena working off line and using the ENTIRE arena. I was standing in the middle of the arena working her with verbal and hand commands, (point in the direction I wanted her to go). She started at the walk, moved into the trot....


And then into the canter...

After going round in both directions at all three gaits, I asked her to stop and come to me. She did this with no hesitation, without the aid of a long line or the confines of a smaller round pen.

We then went to the long line. The reason I am still using the line is because early on in OUR training, I created a few holes in Kaycee, one of which is teaching her to pull on me when on a line. We are now in the process of UN-teaching this behavior!! lol

I was pleased that even on the long line Kaycee was soft and willing, she picked up all gaits easily and with no fuss or muss....

I have to laugh because as I am lunging my horse, I have the line in one hand and the camera in the other and was taking photos...

I can safely say that we are making HUGE progress in the re-training of Lisa and Kaycee on the long line. When we finished with lungeing, I bridled Kaycee and we moved on to the continuation of softening both Kaycee's response to the bit and my hands on the reins. (sorry, no photos of this phase, to many other things to focus on).

I mounted up and we started working on right turns, left turns etc... at the walk, I found that Kaycee was quick to respond to my soft requests on the bit so as my confidence was boosted again, I asked for a trot. She was great, just the slightest touch of the reins and she was going any direction I asked. We were doing circles, which previously when I tried to bend her into a circle, she would stop, so this was a huge success to me. After about 20 or 30 minutes of this, all around the arena, I decided we should try at the canter. I took a break for about 5 minutes just to let her think about things before we started something new.

My biggest confidence issue is demanding while I am on Kaycee's back and she knows it! When we started up again, I asked her to trot and off we went, until we got to the far corner of the arena, I asked her to canter and she flat out refused!! She decided that she was done and was not doing this anymore!! She started backing towards the gate and every time I tried to turn her, she either flexed or rufused to move. I realize that the best way to fix this is to make her work while I am still on her back, however, my lack of confidence would not allow this, so I got off of her and made her move her feet, I got back on her and asked her to trot again and she again refused. I got off again and this time put the lead rope on her bit and worked her harder, she tried to pull me off my feet, but I won and pulled her off balance instead! I got back on her and again went to the far end of the arena and asked her to trot, she again refused and started backing towards the gate again. This time I got off and put the long line on her. Right in front of the gate, I made her lope round and round, back and forth both directions and in general made the wrong thing hard. I should take a moment to say that previously when I got off of her, I worked her a little bit and stayed off. No more of that, I have to say that I do believe she was quite surprised when I not only got back on her, 3 times, but I worked her well beyond what I have done in the past. After the long line, I got on, went straight to the far corner and I asked her to walk in a circle and then trot in a circle, aaaahhhhh SUCCESS!! I may not have done it on her back, but I believe I got my point across! We will find out tomorrow.