On this first day of 2011, we had and excellent day!
Again we worked in the round pen, spent time with the turns in to the fence. Really looking for the turn and wants to carry herself through it. One of the the things I mentioned yesterday was the softness and suppleness homework. I kinda put the cart before the horse, so to speak, in explaining what this is to me. I always work this before I start asking for any turns. If you can't bend that head around, then you can't stop them if they get away from you.
I started out by asking her to bend side to side. Most horses will do this, but if you look at that eye...they are not looking at you, this is called a false release. I kept asking her for the release until her eye connected with me. Meaning, I could see more than the whites of her eye when she bent her head around. She's a pretty sharp mare, so this went pretty fast. Once both side were going well, I then started asking for her to break at the poll. This is nothing more than asking for both sides at the same time. The key to any release, is the soft ask. Most anybody can muscle one, but softness, ask softly. My Dad calls it butterfly fingers. Annie is still pretty resistant to this, but I understand where she is coming from. Her past wreck has made her hypersensitive around her nose. Time and patience will win out in the end.
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