Catching game and play.

I never get tired of taking photos of the delightful Breeze playing the catching game with me. I only have to walk into the field most evenings and she comes over from a long way away. This evening I went and sat on the ground to wait for Tinkerbell to come over while Breeze gave two other TB's a lesson in grumpy mare behaviour. I didn't take a photo of Tinkerbell. She is a little nervous as yet but I will say she is the cutest little sweet Shetland I ever set eyes on. She is tiny and I have always loved her to bits. She doesn't belong to me, I wish she did, but it doesn't stop me sitting on the ground and scratching her when she comes and stands next to me.

Breeze was in a good mood this eve unlike last night when she really didn't want to do anything but eat and let me know it was time to go home lol. I had a day off work today and spent some time watching some video footage from the Parelli website vault. Mostly in response to the furore surrounding a demo at the Festival of the Horse last weekend at Parelli HQ.

As is usual when I watch some Parelli I feel inspired and want to play. I am not in the right frame of mind to ride at the moment. Sometimes my depression gets me like that and I know it's best that I don't ride. Certainly not so early on in my relationship with Breeze. I guess I am saying that riding is still a big effort for me and it doesn't come naturally to me. I have to do a lot of preparation in my own head and make sure I am as emotionally fit as I can be so that I can be a partner, not a scared predator. One day I hope to be able to just 'hop on' any time I feel like it when B is ready.

Breeze and I had a short play this morning and she was very relaxed and wasn't bracey or resistant. It's nice to have a little play session before I take her out to the field.

Anyway, after starting with sideways and falling leaf, this evening I focused on asking B to circle for more than 10 laps in walk and trot in both directions. She gave me some lovely relaxed trot with the belly of the rope laying on the ground. This is a first! So was Breeze giving me canter. I was pleased to see she is less impulsive now. Woohoo! She did end up getting resistant when I asked for cod with her not liking to go anti clockwise again but we played with that for a while and I think we had a breakthrough when she pulled back on the rope and stood staring at me, head high. I held on without putting more pressure on her and waited. Suddenly she just put her head down and walked towards me! Nice. She got a lot of praise and we spent a long time playing friendly game.

I wonder if it's the way I ask her to cod anti clockwise, I must be asking the question wrong and am not in the proper position lol. She gave me some lovely fig 8 around some jump sides although she does also try to side pass over them but the are a little too high for her to go over.

Breeze had trouble jumping the blue barrels again until I moved them over to the fence and made it easier for her. We also did some put your nose on this, sideways over things and sideways towards me. I backed her out of the school and then spent a little time asking her to side pass towards me while I stood on the mounting block and leaned on her back and stroked her. She is getting the hang of that too and is much happier. When we first started this she was very uneasy about it and would walk away and not want to come near the block. Slowly she gets used to me touching her.

Later she let me stretch out her legs as directed by Sue after her massage. In her stable she let me rub her over her shoulders and back in big sweeping movements which gave her coat an extra glossy sheen. Usually she tells me in no certain terms that I must not touch her by flicking me in the face with her tail. Bonus!