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!