It worked!

Ride #11:
WOW, wow, wow. That feeling of complete pride and satisfaction is so incredible. Carolyn came to ride around with me in the pasture and everything worked out perfectly. We were nervous because the day before we really had to get after her to correct her behavior of darting off the wrong direction, and bracing at the end of the rope when circling. I was really hoping that she would be hyper sensitive, or scared/intimidated and not want to be there. But NO WAY, we must have done something right because she was amazing! Her tender sensitive nervousness had subsided significantly and I could throw a rope over her back, or throw the saddle on, or make a big quick movement and it didnt even phase her. Its almost as if shes thinking, "Ha this is nothing now, yesterday we did some crazy stuff and it didnt kill me".

Her circling game is not cured, but I believe she now understands what I want and occasionally gets cocky and tests me to see if im still serious about it.

I didnt introduce anything new on the ground, just revisited all the things I had taught her before. Then I hopped on and rode. She is pretty sensitive to my leg cues but doesnt feel scared of my legs touching her. Her forehand yields pretty good and her hindquarters yield super easy!

Doc and Lance were out moving water for irrigation with the tractor so I had Teva follow the tractor at a walk as her first job once I got on. She did wonderfully and actually wanted to pass the tractor cause it was going so slow. No nervousness there. So I worked on our trot. Starting with her head bent slightly to the inside of a circle in case the squeak of the saddle, jingle of the D-rings, of bounce of the rider (me!) surprised her. No negative reaction so I put her on a loose rein and had one hand ready to bend her at all times. There was one little dart forward for some reason and I had to bend and stop her for that, otherwise it went perfect. We did a whole bunch of trotting and following Carolyn and Jake around for a bit. Jake really wanted to go back and chill with Banner and Savannah and not be told what to do. I was proud that Teva was not effected by his energy when we were near him. Then I got brave and asked for a faster extended trot just by bringing up my energy and clicking to her. Perfect speed increase, so I did it 2 more times and got the same great result. She did not get emotional and was able to bring her energy up to go quicker and then settle right back down. That is when I felt ready for the canter.

I got her up into a fast trot and then catered in my body and kissed and after a few strides she matched the canter in my body perfectly! She only cantered a few strides but I was so happy and excited for that! So we tried it a couple more times and again got the same result. Not only did it feel great but, I had my wonderful friend there watching and apparently it looked pretty great too. Haaaa floating on success!

If it doesnt work, try something else

Carolyn and I played around with Teva and the plan was for her to Canter around in a circle and go over some of the cavaletties and if she is good with that then i would ride the canter for the first time. Unfortunately she had no idea what we were asking her. We would send her one way then she would stop and dart the other direction. Then she would hang back at the very end of the rope bracing and backing then finally darting off the wrong direction. So Carolyn worked with her about 30 mins and then I worked with her about 30 mins and the dang bugs were eating us the whole time.

When she would stop I tried to gently direct the rope in the same direction she was on but she would then jump off the wrong way, and when I would block the wrong direction with the stick and string she would pull way backwards. Then she would stay pulling back at the end of the rope so I tried just backing her and sending her one direction at the same time. Hoping that when she gets tired of backing that she would "escape" the direction I wanted. That way she feels like it was her idea. That kinda worked a couple times but not super well.

Then I tried putting my back against the fence so that when she would do a circle and stop at the fence I could direct her and she would have no other option but to go the way I was suggesting. I did half circles back and forth and back and forth, then stepped about 15 ft from the fence so that she could squeeze through and not have to stop and go the other direction. Making the full circle the easy thing to do, and if she would stop and dart off the wrong way then I back to the fence and reteach her what my send means. Then allow her to do a full circle. That also worked okay and I think she developed some understanding of my "send" cue. The only issue is she would still hang back at the end of the rope.

So the other thing I tried was when she would freeze back there is I would point with the rope the direction I wanted. Give her a minute to think about it and if she didnt move then I would chase her while directing her to the side and tag her if she did not go. That way she can't brace and could not physically go the wrong way. I would also keep her on a shorter 15-20ft length of rope so she could have enough freedom to move and make her own decisions but short enough that I can correct the wrong ones easily.

Eventually she would circle 2 laps each direction without stopping so I called that good enough for now especially since it was 10:00pm and we were working in the dark.

We can just hope she learned something from it all and I didn't terrorize her.

Better than nothing

Ride #10:
She was pretty distracted but did okay and tolerated me. No blatant objections. It was dark when I rode her so that limited me quite a bit but it is better than nothing. Did a lot of casual following the rail in the arena.

Traveling down the road to Success!

Ride #9:
I am on the road to Success! She has now totally accepted the saddle and rider. We played around in the pasture because the arena was full and that was probably the best thing for us. She could be around Savannah and Jake which reduces druthers. They were running around like crazy, dodging mosquitoes so she did not want to get too close to them. So we wandered towards the back of the pasture. We walked and trotted and I felt like she had totally accepted me and the saddle on her and it was just a matter of deciding what to do next.

At first I only would ask her to trot when turning so I could quickly bend her to a stop if she needed it. Then we moved onto me having one hand on the reins and horn, and the other on the rein that she was more likely to turn towards. I would switch hands depending on which direction she was going. That seems to work pretty well because I am totally prepared if she does anything. The hand on the horn will keep me in the saddle and ensure I am not micromanaging her. The other hand is always ready, and in position. So we trotted and then she would walk after a bit, then id ask her to trot, and then after a while she would walk again. We will work on purity of gait later. Right now the transition is what im concentrating on, and she would go into the trot fairly easy with me just bringing my energy up and clicking. When she didnt understand the trot cue I would tap my leg and that was enough to get her going. She really did great and im so proud of her.

Just another day

Ride #8:

Limited time so we worked in the round pen on circling and then I hopped on bareback. She doesnt mind me up there at all, but Banner was eating and she did not want to go around in circles so our impulsion was nada. It was an ok session, nothing bad but nothing great happened. At least we were able to spend some time together and develop a better relationship.

Fixing suppressed fears

Back to the drawing board, I definitely missed something. She is still unconfident with a lot of things. So I spent some extra time fixing her fear of the stick and string and fear of things going over her back, and flying around her, and the saddle of course. I think I only had her at 70% acceptance before and I though that was good enough to move on for now, but it is not. She needs to know 100% that she should not be afraid. Otherwise she'll hold it in and blow up.

Carolyn helped me see when she relaxed when saddling and then I had her trot over poles On-Line and eventually at the canter and it was incredible. She had no need to buck because she was so concentrated on what I was asking her to do. She would do these amazing canter leaps between poles. It was just beautiful to watch her put so much effort in. Carolyn's wonderful grandkids were there too, cheering Teva on and that made it more fun for us. Teva also kicked the big ball around and tied to itch on the ball, unsuccessfully I might add. She was doing perfectly so decided to end it there and hope she remembers that feeling. I know I will.

Lots of trot

Ride #6:

Just great all around. I didn't do anything real big and crazy to scare her. She does not like the carrot stick at all and gets tense and scared every time I pick it up. So that's something we need more work on. We did walk around and trot after Carolyn and Savannah and she seemed to do fine. Then they left and we stayed walking around and trotting around the arena and she did want to go eat the weeds but for the most part did awesome.

I am trying really hard not to micromanage her and only pick up the reins when I want a change. So I was on the bareback pad and would hold onto the loop and middle of the rein with the outside hand and had the other one ready to pick up and turn or shut her down if she objected. That seemed to mostly help me from being too quick about grabbing the reins. I was super happy with her and cant wait to try the canter.