Overdue Play

Aspire was just little miss energy today!  As with my last handful of posts, it's been a while since I've played with her and, once again, you could tell.  I started with some friendly game, taking her out to graze, brushing her, etc and then moved on to attempting the figure-8 pattern on a 22ft' line.  She couldn't help but blast around the barrels, miss the changes of direction, and continue to gain momentum.  At one point she just took off as fast as her little feet could run.  One one note I was not impressed at her impulsiveness, on the other for as fast as she was going she kept her ear on me the whole time was not not dragging out and pulling away on the circle. 

I wanted to match her energy and then exceed it but being that we were playing in the pasture it wasn't the best environment to push her faster without potential of losing her.  Instead, to meet and exceed her energy I moved our circle to a part of pasture with a steep hill on either side of this rise which created somewhat of a bridge.  In this way she had to run up and down on the one side and up and down on the other side, while navigating bushes, stick, rocks, etc.  It really helped, I just let her work it out herself, and pretty soon she decided that running up and down the hills was more work than it was worth and she just stopped and came right into me and rested her head on my chest.  It was really sweet! 

After that we just played with some stick to me, sideways, yo-yo - all the games here and there.  When we did try the figure-8 pattern again she offered to change directions and was really looking for and reaching into the pattern.  She just looked lovely! Her whole topline came down, she was breathing deep, and just wonderful.  I also played with some driving from Z3 and Z5. 

Building on what we did last, with that day of really good circles, I can tell she's really getting it and finding comfort in being with me.  When I was done playing with her I turned her loose in the pasture while I put my stuff away and as I was walking toward the barn she looked up, saw I was about 100 feet away and neighed to me and came galloping over to follow me the rest of the way!  Very rewarding :) 

I would like to work on more driving games and more squeeze games.  Also more saddling and bridling and work up to laying on her from a mounting block.