Hello Everyone!

Thank you for your patience during Pandas R&R, and this terribly rainy weather.  We have started our training back up, and boy is she ready!

Sunday and Monday I worked Panda in the round pen.  We recapped what we had been working on last month, and also added a few new things to the agenda.

Panda is one of the most eager horses that I’ve encountered!  She can’t wait to please, and doesn’t have a defiant bone in her body…yet!  All of her issues are fear related.

For these two lessons, I refreshed her memory on moving off of my hand, and the click…Very few times did I actually have to spank the ground with my whip.

She was consistently changing direction to the inside, and began trotting up to me in the center when I asked her to stop.  The best part is that she is beginning to follow me all around the round pen.  We have finally made her realize that her place of rest is as close to me as possible.  This usually isn’t a hard lesson to teach them, but the first step in building a partnership.

The new material that she is learning is desensitizing to the stick and string, along with the lead rope.  I am able to throw it all over her body without her reacting.  This is huge for her, as the reacting side of her brain, far out weighs the thinking side.  I am working on moving her hindquarters and forequarters independently from each other, and starting to gain control over her five body parts.  She’s coming along well so far, and I am just so excited about her progress.

You can see from these pictures that she is continuing to fill out.  Her gorgeous head gets more shapely every day!  I’ll continue to post updates, and will try to get a video or two up here before long.  So excited to be back in session!  Thank you for reading!