Happy Day :D

After feeling discouraged for about a week or so now, I finally have a reason to be happy. Yesterday, in an effort to work on our "relationship problems" and fix our catching game, I set up a small make-shift round pen in our indoor arena out of big cones and yard tape. I started playing around with hindquarter disengagement leading into the stick to me game- this is where I found our problem (or one of them). I noticed, and was not surprised, that Rydel can't move her hindquarters around and give me her right eye, but she will do it from the opposite side to give me her left eye. Hmmm! So I need to do more friendly game on her right side. After playing with it some more she finally understood that walking in an arc toward her hind end and putting a little pressure on her means "spin around, give me two eyes, and walk with me." Keeping things short, sweet, and successful, we ended when she could do it on both sides and was feeling pretty relaxed with me on her right side.

Well...Today was a huge testament to the fact that doing less sooner pays off because when I went into the pasture to get Rydel, all it took was a little pressure on her hindquarters and she was walking back toward the barn with me!! She had to stop at some thresholds in which case we took our time and played the game again, but I was thrilled when she stopped a few times to blow out and relax. She even followed me all the way into the barn without me having to touch her at all and walked right into her stall! :D That is a success in my book.