Josie stuff and Clancy tests her boundaries.

I'm getting a little behind on my Josie posts.
She is coming along nicely.
In this video, it shows that the desensitizing to the stick and string and the flag from the lesson before sank in, and we introduced a rope around her barrel to simulate the cinch. She took it all quite well.



The next day, we tried something different with desensitizing. I noticed how reactive she was when I was "talking with my hands" when I was explaining something, so Shayla did some work on that, and also we introduced the little military saddle to her. It wound up being a pretty good session.

After that, the next session we changed it up a bunch. She was introduced to having someone above her, with Shayla climbing up on the barrel and asking her to move her hip over as if she was going to get on her. That had varying degrees of success.....
Then Shayla thought it would be a good idea to take Josie for a walk, to give her something else to think about. I had Clancy saddled, so off we went.

We also ponied her from Clancy- that went really well. We had actually ponied her from Beamer when she was a lot littler, and she must have remembered some of that.

Of course, we had to pose in front of the beautiful back drop of the Skimmerhorn mountains.
We switched out and Shayla rode while I walked Josie, she rode ahead while I held Josie back to see if she would get worried, but she was really good.

In this little video I love how relaxed they are and their tails swinging in unison.

Then today, we hauled Clancy and Shayla's mare Rose to the outdoor arena. Since Clancy coughs when she is around dust I didn't work her too hard, but did come up with a few things I need to work on, like getting her united in the side pass, she tends to be slower with her front end than her hind instead of stepping evenly. I also need to work on her turns on the forehand and on the haunches. She is a little uncoordinated with her right hind; she doesn't lift and place it as smoothly as she does the left hind in lateral movements.

This arena is at the base of those same Skimmerhorn mountains- such a beautiful setting.
Clancy is improving in standing still, but she committed the capital crime of trying to bite me when I was saddling her today. I heard her open her jaws as she swung her head to me as I was adjusting the saddle position and just before she could connect I turned and yelled "Don't even think about doing that!" I didn't hit her but I scared the pants off her, she set back and the saddle came off and danged if she didn't get all respectful and yes ma'am after that. I think she got away with lots of stuff before I got her and she is testing me to see what her limits are. Her crimes are this attempted biting thing, not standing still for mounting, and jigging when she gets anxious. She is actually getting better at standing still and once again, sometimes I have to get after her for swinging her hip away or stepping back because she darn sure knows by now that she is required to stand still. It's coming, but she is still testing a bit. I think there will be other ways she will test that I'll find out as we go along, but in the end, I'm sure we will have a good partnership.