Back up.

My horse trailer is more of a stock trailer (it used to be a 4 horse straight  haul and we converted it to wide open inside). Normally, I have the horses come out head first as they haul with their heads angled to the rear. Easy peasy. Since we are planning a show career for Josie, there will come a time when she will have to haul in a different trailer where she will have to back out, so yesterday, I backed her out. It was the usual story, she got quite concerned about where the ground was and it took a few minutes but we got it done without incident.
So, her lesson today started off with work backing up. A review of over the tarp work, then asking her to back off the tarp. Shayla soon figured that the issue was the poles that were holding the tarp down, so she worked her on a single pole, going over it and then backing over it. It was pretty funny when she did this:

Yep, Josie toes on top of the pole! She did end up backing nicely though.
I rode Clancy while Josie was being worked. I started off with ground work and flagging was fun because Clancy did get a bit reactive at first, but she is much to lazy to stay worked up when she figured out that her reaction caused me to get even bigger with the flag, and her feet stopping equalled the flag stopping. (Grin). I also did the half circle exercise from Buck's clinic dvd, it was a lot of fun. I need to work on my timing and finesse for that but Clancy did quite well.
After that I was just riding circles, trying to get Clancy to round up and carry herself in better frame; she tends to be heavy on the forehand and doesn't use her hind end well. Anyway, she tripped over her own feet and went down on her knees, pitched me forward but not off, and bless that mare she just stayed down on her knees while I righted myself and then got up. I love that mare! Shayla gave me a lesson on how to get her working better, using her shoulders properly instead of evading with them and diving into the bit instead of giving true collection, so that will be my focus for riding today. As Shayla was riding her I could see the difference when she started moving correctly, it was a pretty picture. I should have videoed it!
Then it was off to the teeter totter bridge. Clancy has no trouble going over it, even steps on from the high end and walks calmly across. Josie was not so keen on the bridge work, she wanted to pop off the side, or jump off before it teetered. Of course, that just created more work for her until she did it right.

That big saddle horn on my Wade saddle is just perfect for leaning on! Isn't that a lovely view?