Sunday 3rd February

Well today it wasn't raining or windy so I thought I better make the most of it and go out and play with Blossom.

I had wanted to try playing with change of direction with the circling game as I have been watching the level two dvds and feel I now understand what I have to do now. So I warmed up with playing the seven games on the 12ft line. First 3 games were really good, yo yo she went a bit squint but after a couple she done it really well at only phase 1. Circling game wasn't very good I felt to start with because the ground was still quite wet there just wasn't enough room for her as she was really pulling on me and I felt I wasn't able to stay in the one spot. So I decided to leave that game until I was on the 22ft rope. We moved on to play the squeeze game, which she done really well between me and a fence. Sideways was the best we have ever managed!! She really was moving her legs over each other, and seemed quite relaxed doing it.

I then moved on to the 22ft line and done a few yo yo's with her, she was really good but seem to get a little unconfident when she was right the way out. So I just left her there for a minute before asking her back in. The second time she was much better!
We then moved on to circling game, I moved up the field where the ground was a bit better. But when we then started to circle Blossom would stop at the same stop everytime.. To start with I thought she was stopping there because it was behind my back, so after thanking her for checking in and re sending her I found we still had this problem even when my back was in the other direction.. I then thought the problem could have been in my send, as when I first started Parelli I had problems with circling but then found out that the problem was actually in my send. I wasn't given Blossom a clear enough signal for her to understand what I was asking of her. So I really made sure I was sending her well and she was going from the send really well in walk, trot and canter depending on my energy. But she would still stop at the same spot! This was even from a fast canter, she would bounce to a stop. I then thought the problem may have been she was un confident in that area of the field as we don't often play there. So I moved back down the field to an area where we have played before - but again I had the same problem. She would go off on the circle then just stop, everytime at the same spot. This was the same going in both directions.

I had totally run out of ideas, so decided to leave that game for the day as I didn't want to make the situation worse. So instead we played stick to me, using walk, trot, stand and back up. She was really good so I decided to go into the school and try it at liberty. This went better than I could have hoped for, we managed walk, trot, stand and back up. Her back up wasn't always straight but I was so happy with what she offered me seen as it was our first liberty session. I did loose her a couple of times when I put too much pressure on her asking for a faster trot, but the second time she trotted back to me!! I was so happy!! Hopefully I will get out to play with her at some point this week so we can try the circling game again.