Today I decided it was a 'see how much we can achieve with the tarp' day. To get connected we played the circling game with changes of directions and speed. We also did traveling circles for the first time(super slowly, but it still counts!).
Then we played the yoyo game next to the tarp, then over it. Brandy is going on the tarp more confidently than last time but she still thinks she needs to lift her feet higher than usual when she steps on it. Also when she is backing up she drags her feet more, maybe because the texture feels funny under her hooves or the noise it makes worries her or she just wants to make the tarp wrinkly so that she gets to rest while I straighten it out :-P
We played the circling game some more and I took her to the fence and asked for one step sideways which she did beautifully (on both sides). Although she still has the tendency to run away when I ask her for sideways. I let her know that I do not appreciate her bum in my face by lightly tapping her HQ with the stick. After doing that once she stopped doing it for the whole session. She is understanding the concept of the sideways game, and what I am working on right now is how light can she be when playing the sideways game.
The last thing we worked on was a surprise!
Below is a clip my mom filmed at the very end.
Then we played the yoyo game next to the tarp, then over it. Brandy is going on the tarp more confidently than last time but she still thinks she needs to lift her feet higher than usual when she steps on it. Also when she is backing up she drags her feet more, maybe because the texture feels funny under her hooves or the noise it makes worries her or she just wants to make the tarp wrinkly so that she gets to rest while I straighten it out :-P
We played the circling game some more and I took her to the fence and asked for one step sideways which she did beautifully (on both sides). Although she still has the tendency to run away when I ask her for sideways. I let her know that I do not appreciate her bum in my face by lightly tapping her HQ with the stick. After doing that once she stopped doing it for the whole session. She is understanding the concept of the sideways game, and what I am working on right now is how light can she be when playing the sideways game.
The last thing we worked on was a surprise!
Below is a clip my mom filmed at the very end.
We finished off the with a short massage session. As I carefully ran my hand over the bladder meridian like usually, Brandy released her tension in the poll more than ever before: she licked, chewed, snorted and shook her mane. I can tell she trusts me more because she is opening up to me and releasing her tension in my presence.
I couldn't believe two HOURS passed so quickly.