3LBreeze: I don't want to!

Breeze and Brown Bertie have a grooming session over the arena fence.

It's been an interesting week for B and I. We didn't ride until today. Instead I spent my time with B playing in the school or just hanging out with her. I have kept the play sessions short and set B up for success. We have slowly been chipping away at her bracing online and I have been asking for a teeny bit of sideways over things without letting her get addicted to it again.

Breeze has also done a few things I haven't seen her do before, or things she could do but refused to let me see her do lol. All four feet on the pedestal and then standing with fronts one one pedestal and backs on the other for a start. Last night she dozed in her stable while I sat and did nothing. The other night when I went to leave for the night she hung her head over the stable door and rested her nose on my shoulder and breathed in my ear while I scratched her face and ears. Occasionally she would nuzzle my ear and hair and I nearly cried because it felt like a very special moment.

While writing this I have realised she hasn't trodden on her rope at all this week, that's new too. Picking her feet out has got much better. We had a lovely soft play to see what mood she was in and saddling today was just as good as it gets really. She wanted to put her nose on the saddle the minute I got it out and she didn't walk away when I offered it up to her back. Getting on was lovely too.

And then it all went pear shaped lol! Breeze did not want to leave the yard. It wasn't fear, it wasn't a threshold, is was pure and simple 'I don't want to and you can't make me'! Every time I asked her forwards she wanted to turn around but only to the left. I tried asking for LF to the right but she just backed up and I am really trying to be soft but assertive so I didn't want to force the issue. So we did a lot of LF and I mean a lot. I waited and waited and tried again and again while Sandra patiently waited for me. It didn't help when someone asked me if I was ok and laughed when I said I was but I was waiting for B to decide for herself that it was ok. I even thought I might cry but managed not to as I sat there trying to find the right arrow in my quiver. Then it hit me, Breeze was not going to be a partner so....I hopped off! Then we walked across the road and I got on from a bench in the pub car park and we headed off into the woods calmly and happily.

I have been watching a lot of Parelli dvd's over and over. 'Behaviour shaping for the horse' has really made an impact on me and given me a lot to think about and put into practice. Taking my freestyle abilities further is not something I thought I would ever have to do when I had Lizzie. Looks like now I am on a very steep learning curve again and I had better up my game even more asap! I have mixed emotions about this. Since the very beginning of my Parelli journey I have watched others in awe and some jealousy, wishing I could do that. My unconfident side thinks I can't do it anyway. My fearful side says it doesn't want to even try. The rest of me thinks well, just give it a go and see what happens.

I wonder if my teeny bit of apprehension today got through to Breeze because of what happened last week. But I gave it a lot of thought all week and visualised a successful ride and I was focused on dealing with what ever Breeze would give me. So I did ppl most of the way around the old woods, pushing that bad banana out! Breeze was lovely. She didn't brace or get tight and did a lot of blowing out. We walked all the way and did a lot of weaving and circling to the right. I saw that B is resistant to right turns and thought more of them would help her. I found she didn't know how to go sideways! Not from the saddle. But I managed to teach her a basic sideways to the left, that being her strong side for now. I think B enjoyed the weaving and circling, even managing to go around Bert and Sandra away from home. She was very responsive and I am managing to do more in my body now to ask her to turn and am using the reins less and less. Which is great because I have to constantly remind myself not to hold tightly to the reins and have soft hands. So easy for me to brace!

We stopped at the exit without B bracing and Sandra and Bert carried on alone. Breeze waited patiently as the endless, it seems, amount of carsd went past before we could cross the road. We had a mooch around the yard and had a play with put your nose on this and then some lovely back up without using the reins! Time to get off after scratching her and giving her bits of carrots and a big thank you.